Growing up, I always thought my life was a bit disappointing. Nothing interesting ever happened in the grand city of Dacula, Georgia. It was a small town, defined by the color gray, with the same people living there for the past 16 years. I never would have thought that my life would be completely turned around the morning of July 31, 2018.
That morning started out like any other normal summer morning, I woke up around 9, laid in bed and switched between Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube for an hour or two. It was towards the end of summer break, so I didn’t have to worry about school, but I had to start my summer work for my classes at some point. After debating with myself if school was worth my precious time over the summer or not, I started walking back to my room to take a nap. I saw my mom and she had a weird look on her face, the face when your parents know something that you don’t. I wanted to ask if she was ok but before I could, she said she needed to talk to me about something important, and started going on about how she did a lot of thinking the night before and how she wanted my opinion. I sat on the couch with her and she looked at me with her bright green eyes and a slight smile. As she told me, I could feel my chest start to sink. She asked me if I wanted to move to Michigan, and let me just tell you, I was not expecting to be hit with a huge bomb on some random Tuesday morning. My heart started to race. I had been in the same house in the same small town with the same people my entire life, and now I had to think about leaving it all behind.
My dad had already moved out, he left the week before, and part of me was glad that I wouldn’t have to deal with the b**lsh*t that came out of his mouth on a daily basis, but his whole act was part of my life for so long that it was going to be different with him not around. Before the divorce, he did some things that no father should ever do to his family, and my mom was done dealing with him. Their divorce process started in April of 2016, and my life started going downhill from there. I was in 7th grade and going through all of this at 13 years old was not ideal. I was supposed to be having fun, making friends, and doing whatever normal kids do when they’re 13, but not me. I had my small group of friends and they were supportive, but how much support would you expect out of a bunch of 13 year olds? As the years went on, I adapted to my new lifestyle and dealt with all the change one day at a time.
My mom was heartbroken. She had been married for almost 18 years and felt betrayed and lonely. On top of all of the divorce cr*p, her best friend had moved to South Carolina a few months prior, and it was really hard on her. Growing up in Michigan, my mom made all of her lifelong friends in high school and college, but left to find a job in Atlanta. Slowly, she made friends down there and started to feel established, like she knew exactly who she wanted to be. After her best friend moved away, she realized she was only friends with people because of her, and she felt really alone. In front of my brother and I she acted like everything was fine but I know deep down inside, she really missed her friends and family and felt like she had nothing left for her in Georgia.
I had many options laid out in front of me and I needed to make a decision. I could either take the safe path and stay in Georgia until I graduated and do all four years of high school at the same school, or I could be bold or risky or whatever you call it when you do something that is unlike your normal self, and switch schools halfway through my high school career which scared the cr*p out of me. I used to be really introverted and making friends was hard unless they made the first move, so going to a new school with brand new people over 800 miles away from my hometown did not process well for me. If I chose to stay, I knew I would end up living with my dad, and even thinking about doing that makes me sick to my stomach. After a lot of thinking and tears, I made my decision. I wanted to move to Michigan.
Telling my mom was easy. I walked up to her and gave her a huge hug, tears were shed, and we started calling everyone up there to tell them the good news. My brother didn’t really care that much, so he let the decision be fully up to me. I called all of my friends to tell them about my news, and some of them questioned whether I was making the right decision or not, but others were super supportive. It was going to be hard having to say goodbye to all of the people I had known since kindergarten, and some since I was less than a month old, but I knew I would be happier living with my mom than I ever would if I chose to stay.
In the back of my mind, I knew I had to tell my dad at some point, and it couldn’t be last minute. I talked to literally everyone about this, my mom, my friends, my counselor, even my cat, and they all gave me answers that didn’t really help. They all said the same thing, about doing what I feel is best or just tell him and see how he reacts, but really I just needed time to think. My dad, being a somewhat aggressive guy, intimidated me when it came to telling him about touchy topics in my life such as boyfriends or bad grades I got on tests, so had no idea how he was going to react. I decided to wait until the house went up for sale, just in case the plans fell through and he wouldn’t have to use that against me for the rest of my life.
At this point, it was early August and school had just started back up. Only a handful of people knew that it was going to be my last year at Dacula, and I didn’t want to make a big deal about it because I was already nervous and stressed out enough. My friends were supportive and helped me out as I started to wrap up my childhood and work towards the future. The school year went by really quickly and before I knew it, the last week of school was here.
That week was very emotional for me. As classes wrapped up, I had to say goodbye to a lot of people that I had known since kindergarten, but I never really processed that I wouldn’t be back with that community anymore. I was just so used to being there 24/7 that the thought of leaving was unknown to me. The last day of school was weird; I paid a lot of attention to the people around me and my surroundings, knowing I would never see them again. Finally, the bell rang and I was officially done at Dacula. I stopped by the counseling office before I left to pick up my transcripts, and walked out to my mom’s car. She was crying, but it still hadn’t hit me that I was done.
The house was going up for sale soon, which also meant I had to tell my dad everything. I really wasn’t looking forward to telling him, but it had to be done at some point. Later that week, when my dad came to pick me up for dinner, my brother, my mom, and I all walked out and told him. He didn’t seem mad, just disappointed. I don’t know if he was disappointed in himself for being a total a** that his kids wanted to leave him, or if he was disappointed that my brother and I had the audacity to separate the family even more than it already was. I don’t remember the rest of that evening in great detail, but it was very quiet.
The moment that moving really started to hit me was about 2 weeks after school got out. My mom and I were sitting on the couch looking at houses. We had previously talked to my mom's family up there, and decided that we wanted to live in or near Clarkston. My mom’s family, being super supportive and excited, found us a real estate agent to help us. We didn’t really know what to think of her at first due to the fact that she was picked for us, but then she pulled off something amazing. She found a house that fit every single requirement we had. It was the perfect size for the three of us, only a 4 minute drive to and from CHS, and a 2 minute drive to and from my Grandpa’s house. Our house in Georgia was up for sale, and we had visitors all the time who were interested, and almost like clockwork, a newlywed couple decided to place an offer on our house, so we immediately put an offer on that house in Michigan. Suddenly, things were starting to fall into place, and we were so excited.