Moving is something that a person usually does at least once in their lifetime. It might be just across the street or neighborhood, but it could also be across the state, the country, or even the world. At this point in my life, I have moved a grand total of eight times. The first move was when I was only one year0old, and the most recent move was halfway through my sophomore year. Moving might not seem like such a big deal to most people, but to me having to move was similar to the end of the world.

The first few times my family moved I do not remember because I was very young. Even if I could remember, it probably would not have bothered me as much as when I started attending school. However, when my parents told me we were moving away from Ankeny, Iowa, the town where I started school and made my first real friends, to Box Elder, South Dakota, which was just over nine and a half hours away, I was convinced my life was over. I begged and pleaded with my parents to have our family stay and not move away, but unfortunately I was not successful.

People might think that moving is fun and even exciting, but the truth is, for me it was just the opposite. Moving was stressful, time consuming, and even confusing at times. Was my new school going to be as nice as my old one? Would I be able to make any friends? Am I still going to see my relatives during the holidays? What about my room? Would it be as good as my old one? These are all things that moving made me worry about. It turned out my school was not that bad and I even managed to make some new friends. But my house just was not the same and there were a number of lonely holidays with no cousins to play with. I still missed my old town terribly, but I was starting to adjust and even fit in to my new home.

Two short years later, my worst fears came back to life. My family was moving yet again. We were headed back to Iowa, but this time to Fort Dodge, which was eight hours away compared to the nine and a half hour trip from Ankeny. Some people might say that every move is a great opportunity to meet new people and see new places, but really each move just forces you to leave behind the people and places you care about and start all over again. This time around I did not even bother with the begging and persuading of my parents. I just felt angry and sorry for myself and hated moving even more, so I decided it was time to put my foot down. I knew that when I got to Fort Dodge I would have to make new friends and start at a new school for the third time. I told my parents that they had to promise me that the next time I moved would be when I graduated, and they did.

There is a saying that bad things come in threes, so five years after I had comfortably settled down in the house that I thought was going to be my home until I graduated, I moved again. This time I was beyond furious with my parents, I mean after all they had promised! There was something different about this move, though, something that made it just bearable. Instead of moving to a new state, like I was expecting, we only moved across town. For the first time I would not have to switch schools or even make new friends. The only change would be my house, but I loved my house. I had spent five years of my life in it, which just happened to be the longest I had ever lived somewhere. Even though it was hard, over time I got used to my new house across town.

Over the years, moving has become a pretty common thing in my family. Even though I know I will not be moving again until I am off to college, I still get nervous whenever I see my mom looking online at the houses that are for sale. Moving has had both positive and negative effects on me, but if I could have chosen to live in one place and never have moved, I would have in a heartbeat.