Moving to me is like walking into my room, without turning on the lights, and trying to find my way to my bed. I know where my destination is, but I don’t know what I might hit on the way there. I might make it there smoothly or I might stub my toe and let out a few screams. This is how I felt when my family and I moved from Indiana to Minnesota.  With this move came plenty of changes, but the state’s name is not the only thing that changed. As time passed I noticed that my personality was the biggest thing I faced from the move. Even the way I lived started to transform into something completely different than when I lived in Indiana. Along with the previously stated affects, I will be explaining how the loss of my friends and family affected me and how all of those added up to the move becoming the most significant event in my life.   

One of the first ways the move affected me was in my personality. The personality trait that changed the most was how talkative I was. When I lived in Indiana I would almost never stop talking because I had lived there for fourteen years and I was comfortable around my friend group. When I first got up here the only people I had to talk to were my parents, my aunt, and my uncle. So when I got to school I had a lot of practice talking with adults, but over the summer I didn’t have much interaction with kids my age and this was a bit of a problem for me. For the first month or so here in Cannon Falls I barely spoke to anyone, but on the rare occasion when I would, it would be brief. I finally started to talk more after the month or so of silence, but even now, as I am writing this, I still haven’t reached the level talkaitive I was at my old school. The second way the move affect my personality was it made me way more comfortable around adults, and not just my parents. As I stated earlier, most of my human interaction over the summer that I moved here was with adults and being around them that much changed how I spoke and acted around them. I also had my first job up here, in Minnesota, selling food in the grandstands at the Faribault Fair, where I worked and interacted with adults. With all of the new interactions I had with adults, I think it matured me in a way that helped me be successful in eighth grade. Which brings me to my next point on how the move affected my personality, it matured me. When I found out that I would be moving it put a lot of stress on me, so I had to learn how to cope with it. Adding up all of the things that I previously stated put stress on me and over the summer each new challenge matured me even more. The move clearly affected my personality, in fact it made me less talkative, more comfortable around adults, and more mature, but it also affected my lifestyle.

My lifestyle was drastically affected by the move. One of the first ways it affected me was the size of my room. In Indiana my brother and I shared the house's master bedroom, but then he changed rooms and I had it all to myself. I had a weight set and a couple other items in there, and there was still a ton of space. When we finally got into our house up here though, I ended up getting the smallest room in the house. The house we are in now was originally a 3 bedroom house, but we needed one more, so the owner agreed to make one more. The owner only had about a week to make it so it wasn’t that big. This was a huge adjustment for me, but I got used to it. In the end I like the smaller room a lot better. It’s a lot more cosy and there is still room for most of my stuff. The second way the move affected my lifestyle was how I spent my free time. In Indiana I lived by a busy street, where I couldn’t bike or do anything by. I lived by almost no trees, except for the ones in my backyard. Once I moved up here though everything changed. Our house is less than a mile from the woods. Cannon Falls is so much smaller than Indianapolis, I can actually bike and do things I enjoy around town without having to worry about getting hit by a car. Since I now have easy access to the woods, I spend more of my free time outside instead of using it to play video games or watch TV. The easy access to the woods has made me a lot healthier, which brings me to the next way the move affected my lifestyle. When we lived in Indiana we lived within one mile of quite a few fast food chains, so when ever we didn’t have enough time to make dinner we went to one of those places. As lots of people know fast food is not very healthy, but when we lived in Indiana we lived so close that we had it at least one to two times a week. Having it once a month is too much, but once or twice a week is horrible for your health. That number has diminished to almost zero now. We very rarely have fast food anymore.  We live much closer to a grocery store,  so we eat a lot healthier foods. The move really affected my lifestyle in the three previously mentioned points, but the final way it affected me was the loss of friends and family. 

The last way that the move affected me was in the loss of my friends and family. Since I had lived there for fourteen years of my life I had formed bonds with friends that when stressed or broken can be very heart wrenching. Some of my closest friends I had to leave behind, but the three friends that had affected me the most were Logan, Sean, and Nicholas. These three were especially hard to leave because we had become such a good band of friends. Sean and Logan had been my friends for only two years, but in that time we formed a tight friendship in those years. We still talk and I visit, but it is not the same because I can’t hang out with them as much as I used to. My friend Nicholas was probably the hardest to leave because I had known him since pre-school. His house was basically my second home. His parents and him were all great at helping me whenever I was feeling sad or stressed. I still visit him and talk, but as I previously stated, is just not the same. When I moved I also left behind some of my family,. My mom, my Uncle Al, and my cousin Isaac were the ones that affected me the most. It was very hard leaving my mom because I don’t get to see her as much now. The reason leaving my uncle was so hard on me was because he was always so funny and he would always be really nice. I felt like I could talk to him about anything. Moving away from cousin affected me because I really looked up to him, when I was younger, and even now. He was always kind to everyone and always had a positive attitude. I had lost all of the friends in Indiana so I to tear out a page and start all over again. This was very challenging for me because I didn’t know anyone besides my family. Like I said before, I didn’t speak to almost anyone for the first month or two. When I finally started talking however and actually started interacting with people, it became super easy to make new friends. The move made me lose plenty of friends and family, but in the process I met new friends and formed new bonds.

The move affected me in many ways including my personality, lifestyle, and my friends and family. When I found out that I would be moving it really shook my world, but maybe it was for the better. I had to leave behind my friends, change my whole lifestyle, and conceive a new personality, but in the process I found many new friends. I also matured through the process of moving and I learned many life lessons that I might not have if I had never left Indiana. Hopefully all of these new experiences will one day help me as an adult. So next time I have a goal to be reached,  I will think about trying to find a bed in a dark room. I can expect a fews bumps, but if I make it I will enjoy it. There were definitely a few bumps for me, but what can I expect from walking into a pitch black room.