Pain. Pain and fear is what one feels when he leaves all he knows. Familiar surroundings and friends bring security. Now take all of that away and throw yourself into the unknown. I know how this feels, because I myself have gone through the pain. For fourteen years of my life I lived in Chicago. Chicago is such a large city, with many people to inhabit it. Everything is so close and yet for enough away that the sense of claustrophobia is not there. I am presently living in St. Louis Missouri, almost a complete opposite of Chicago. Everything is spread out, close to the floor, and you feel almost dirty. I have passed through both and this is my account on how I am the way I am, and how I got there.

In Chicago the school I had attended was very different. My class size was seven kids, including me. Seven kids I had grown up with for my entire life. We were all a part of the same community. Nobody outside of the community could go to our school. Teachers did not have to have a degree to teach, because teaching was simply babysitting the kids. We all worked in Text books and the likes. When you needed help you raised this little American flag at the top of your desk, and when a teacher passed by they would help you. Eight subjects a day and if you didn’t finish your page quota you had to take home for homework. You can just see how dreary and boring this school was, and yet it was unique.

Here in St. Louis I attend Lift For Life Academy. I believe that in every possible way Lift For Life is different than the school I attended in Chicago. My class has about eighty to ninety kids, which is way too many kids to memorize their names. The culture shock alone rocked my world, and I was very emotionally instable when I first moved. The kids were kind to me at first, seeing as I was the new kid. Eventually they saw my weakness and continually played upon it, my weakness being the emotional state I was in.

Moving from all I had known was really painful. My friends were shocked when I broke the news to them that I would not be living there anymore. Once I moved the first big step I made into settling in was confirming that I had moved. For about a month I felt as though I were on vacation. I felt like a soldier on leave from the battle field to tend to a minor injury. Eventually I would leave again and move back into my comfort and security. After half of a year had passed I was finally hit with the true realization that I wasn’t moving back. As bright as the sun casting out darkness, so did my days seem to me after that moment. A milestone had been reached and I was much the happier for it.

School became bearable, but the kids were not through testing me. I was bullied quite a lot during these days, and I had a hard time making it through. I didn’t understand anything that was going on around me. Being raised as a Christian, and always taught not to curse, the other kids could not understand why I acted the way I did. I was raised as a child never to judge someone because of their race, and yet the kids here judged me by my color. The teachers knew I was pretty smart, and that I had very good work ethic. This was due to how I was taught in Chicago, because the teachers there were very strict about homework. I was smart and cocky. A very dangerous combination when you go to a new school. Academically the teachers pushed me hard, trying to drive me out of my current state of mind. By the end of the year I was forced to humble myself. Instead of looking down upon the other students, I decided I would make friends. I earned respect and through hard work I made it through the first year. I had reached another milestone, creating for myself a path of success.

The school in Chicago never had any sports. By the end of my 8th grade year, I was encouraged to join the track team. I decided that it was time I tried something new, so I started my long journey to become physically fit, and mentally stronger. The track team challenged me to my physical limits, and I didn’t want to stop at track. I joined the soccer, and wrestling teams during my freshmen year. I have continually amazed myself at what I can do if I set my mind to it. I am very comfortable with the school that I am in now. I can see my life going far if I stay on the path I am on now.

When I look back at the person I was before I moved, I don’t even recognize myself. I have grown physically, mentally, and spiritually since I moved. Now I have friends and family who care about me, and I will go far. It’s not an option anymore, for if I let my success become an option, I will lose it entirely.