Personal Narrative: Moving To Australia

On December 19, 2012, on the way back home from soccer practice, my parents broke the news to my brother and I that we were going to be moving to Orange County after spending a wonderful year in Chicago. Prior to our move to Chicago we lived in Sydney, Australia for three years. I had looked forward to the move back to the US from Australia for two reasons. One, I was beginning “middle school”, 5th grade, but was considered middle school there, and two, I found out that our family was moving back to the Windy City, well…a little north from there to a small village called Glencoe. Upon moving there, getting settled in, and starting school, I fell in love with the place and everybody who was associated with it as it was a small village with less than 2,000 people. I also did not expect to move anywhere and thought that this would be the place where I would grow up and call home. Naturally, after experiencing all this, when I found out the news about our relocation to

I did not want to leave the remarkable red brick building that was my school, and I did not yearn to leave the weather that defined Chicago and the Midwest. Regarding my first reason for resistance, the friends I made in Glencoe could be described as the toughest, friendliest, utmost empathetic people on planet Earth. They are tough because they are eager to play football at lunch in temperatures ranging from -20°F to 90°F. They are friendly because day in and day out, they look out for you, compose you to laugh when you are down, spruce up a boring winter’s day with classic North Shore (referring to the area where we live) jokes and games, etc. And, they are empathic because they know how it feels to be new, to be different, and how much you try to achieve your goals, and how appalling a failure along that path feels