I was born in a nice city in upstate New York. My father was an airline pilot, and my mother worked for the state in a maximum security prison. For twelve years I lived there, and nothing ever showed that I would ever live anywhere else but there until I moved out. Obviously, God had other plans for my family's lives, because in about the spring of 2012, when I was in fifth grade, my mother decided to go back to school to become a veterinarian. My mother had always wanted to become a vet, but after marriage, and having kids, she decided to settle down and work for the state. But that job had been taking its toll on my mother, who as the guidance counselor and supervisor, tried to help murderers and other hardened criminals. My parents decided on a school in the Caribbean, on a tiny island called St. Kitts, an expedited 2.5 year program. Don't know where that is? Don't worry, neither did I. “St. Kitts?” I remember asking “Where's that?” My mother enrolled in the nearby community collage to get the required credits for the school, so my father got a leave of absence from work. On top of all this, they also decided they didn't like the public school my sister and I were going to, so they decided to homeschool us, I was in 6th, and my sister was in 4th. Looking back, how my parents did all this is a mystery. My mother taught us most subjects, and my dad taught math, it was a great experience.

This went all the way until the fall of 2013, and my mother had been accepted to Ross University in St. Kitts. I was in 7th grade, my sister was in 5th. I had imagined that island to be like Puerto Rico, an island that was basically an extension of Miami. Yeah, it was nothing like that. The island was very small, and not at all like the place I'd just left. The airport was very small, and you had to walk off the plane on stairs, then walk up a ramp to customs. The room was hot, and the line was long, and we were there for what felt like an hour. But we got out, got our bags, and met the school representative to take us to our house. Our house was a small, two bedroom, one bathroom apartment, in a building with two or three other apartments. We went out shopping that first day, got food, and settled in. After a week of orientation, my mother, sister, and I had school. My mother’s school had a little school for the kids of the teachers and students, and I, never having lived anywhere but my little town in New York, was a fish out of water. It was really hard those first couple months, trying to fit in and get friends.

Meanwhile, the island itself was something to get used to. It was hot, and while people spoke English, it was heavily accented, and it took me a long time to kind of get an idea of what they were saying. Everyone drove on the left, and the steering wheels were on the right, and everything ran on island time “things happen when they happen.” You could say “let's have a meeting a 3:00,” and people would come at 4:00, 4:30, if they came at all. But… St. Kitts was actually a really great experience. I met some great people, and some great friends I still talk to today. I grew up a lot on that island, I had to learn to do things on my own, to cook food if I needed to, and to be self sufficient. I left that island last December, the 2.5 years over. I live in Florida now, my mother finishing her clinics. I did miss America while I was there, the food, the convenience, my family. I miss St. Kitts sometimes, the simplicity, the closeness. But I'm content, and happy with my life. I'm thankful for the people, and experiences, and maturity those 2.5 years on that island brought me.