Six towns, six houses. Each house has left a mark on me From the good, the bad, and the ugly. From the morning cups of OJ and chocolate chip pancakes to the late nights crying in my room because I wasn't the same as everyone else. You would think being the new girl five times would make it get easier, but each time I was just as shocked as the time before. Until one day it finally got better.

My first move was from Webster to Tewksbury. I was very young so I don’t really remember moving that well. I have some memories of playing with my dad in the backyard but other than that this move didn’t affect me. The longest I have ever stayed in one place was when I lived in Tewksbury. I lived there when my brother was born. I have really pleasant memories of this house when my parents were still together. We had a huge backyard and my dad made a trail in the woods that led out to a field. My brother and I would always take our bikes and go on the trail. I had my own room with pink carpets and pink walls that my mom would say is my “princess room”. Unfortunately, my mom divorced my dad when I lived in this house. I moved out of Tewksbury when I was in kindergarten. Luckily I was still young enough that making friends was easy.

My mom had moved to Andover and my dad stayed in the Tewksbury house but only for two more years before he sold the house. I lived in Andover for four years. During those years my brother and I had to share a room. We lived in a small apartment. My favorite part was that my brother and I had the master bedroom. This meant we had a ginormous closet and our own bathroom. I made a lot of friends in Andover, so when I unexpectedly moved in 4th grade it was tough to deal with. I had never imagined that I would be switching schools, especially in November. I had a heavy heart for I had to leave my friends from kindergarten behind. There were very few ways we could contact each other because we were too young for phones. 

After Andover, I moved to a two-family house in Medford. Fun fact: the house was built in the 1800s. I remember there being one really long hallway that all of the rooms were off of. My brother's room was supposed to be an office off of my room so the only way he could access his room was through mine. We had ceilings as high as the church because it was an older home. There was also a window that connected our pantry to the hallway next to the kitchen. When we moved there my brother and I would always play a pretend game we called Mcdonald's drive-through. When I started school in Medford, the kids were accepting but I still felt like an outsider. On my first day of school, I was very nervous that no one would like me. All of them had inside jokes because they grew up together and even though they tried to include me I felt different. When it came time to choose what middle school to go to I made the spontaneous decision to go to the opposite one as all of my friends. I was very nervous because it was my first day of middle school and I didn’t know anyone. I quickly started to love that school, I made new friends and I liked the teachers. It all came to an end when my landlord's mother got sick. Because she was older they wanted her to move into our part of the house. My mom had no choice, so there we were again moving in the middle of the year. I was really upset because I had just gotten used to my new school. 

We moved to Woburn in February of 6th grade. I was nervous even though I had done this before. Our new apartment was small and my brother and I had to share a room once again. We were on top of each other all of the time. I did not have a good experience the rest of 6th grade in Woburn. First, they switched my language to Spanish; I used to take Italian. I had no clue what was going on but my teacher didn’t care and never reviewed the basics with me. Being the perfectionist I am, I had to put a lot of effort in order to get an A in that class and it was very mentally tiring. The kids at my school were also not welcoming. They had new students all the time so no one really cared. This made it 10x harder to make friends. My curriculum was also different in Medford than it was in Woburn so I was learning completely different topics in school. At first, I found it difficult to adjust but eventually, I did. My start of 7th grade in Woburn was a different experience. I had made friends during the first week of school. I was also put in classes that challenged me in a good way. My new Spanish teacher was very understanding and taught me all of the basics of the language. I started Pop Warner cheer in Woburn. This was my first time doing pop warner as I had done Allstar cheering my whole life. My mom was a coach so it made it that much more fun. My season was unfortunately cut short when I broke my leg but it didn’t matter because everyone was very supportive. I had finally felt like I was fitting in. 

Then once again in February, my mom told me we were moving. At this point, it felt like deja vu. This would be the fourth time I had moved in the middle of a school year. This time we moved to Wilmington. All over again I felt very distraught because I had finally fit in. This move felt different. We had moved to a loft apartment. It didn’t even feel like we lived in an apartment here because there were two floors. We all had our own space. The living room had over 20ft ceilings. When I started school here I wasn’t nervous at all. On my first day, everyone was coming up to me because I was the new student and instead of panicking I acted like I had lived here my whole life. I became friends with a big group and after just three weeks my friends and I would joke how it felt like I had been here the whole time. I started lacrosse for the first time and surprisingly was talented at it. I made more friends with the girls on my team. Over the summer we drifted but at the start of 8th grade, I met my soon-to-be best friend. I did Wilmington pop warner and my mom coached my team again. When February rolled around I was scared I was going to get the same news I had gotten now for the past three years. When my mom renewed our lease, a weight was lifted. I was going to live here for at least another year. 

It has now been three years since I moved to Wilmington. Throughout my experiences of moving, I think I was forced to mature fast. After all, it was just my mom, my brother, and I. My mom had to work to support us so I took on the common “older sister turned mom” role. Overall this strengthened my family's relationships and today we are all still very close. I have no idea who I would be if I hadn’t moved a lot when I was younger and I wouldn’t want to know. Moving has really shaped me into the person I am today.