Moving schools can be a difficult experience for most people. You have to find new friends and cliques to fit into while also trying to navigate the winding hallways to find your classes. I have moved to a total of five different schools in my life ranging from homeschool to enormous schools like Lindale. I started my life homeschooled and was happy with that. I am generally an introverted person, so not being around many people was perfectly okay with me.
I remained in homeschool until junior high. I applied to the middle school in the town I lived in at the time which was Frankston, Texas. It was an incredibly small school with only sixty students in my graduating class. I had come from homeschool where I didn’t speak to anyone except for my parents or siblings all day. Thus, being surrounded by this many students felt overwhelming. I kept to myself, for the most part, not speaking unless I had to and rarely participating in class. When I was at home, I spent my time reading and watching TV. Home is where I could feel safe, it was my solitude.
After a year or two of attending middle school, I gained “friends” that I could call my own. I spent the majority of my junior high only speaking to my friends during school and not outside of it.
When I entered high school, I attended Palestine high school, which was half an hour away from Frankston. I decided this school would be different. I decided I would actually make friends I enjoyed hanging out with, and I did. I met two people who became friends that I still have to this day. Their names are Trenton and Ana and they became my best friends while attending this school. I learned how to socialize in this school but it didn’t last too long.
Little did I know I would be moving back to Frankston for the second semester of my freshman year. When I moved back, I was met with a school full of familiar faces, some excited to see me back and some not. Even though I knew most of the people, I still felt lonely. I didn’t feel like I had people that cared for me as friends should. As I grew older, I felt the need to have more people around me. I actually wanted friends, but now I couldn’t have any.
After two months, I moved into of my fathers’ house in Lindale, but I stayed in Frankston to finish up my freshman year. My brother and I were in the car for an hour before we finally arrived at school. We continued with school and the length of the day, bored out of our minds. When we finally got in the car to start our journey home, we were either silent or arguing the entire ride. We don’t blame each other since we were both going through a rough period in our lives. After suffering through the rest of the school year and getting used to living with our father, we were excited about the next summer. However, the summer only brought sweltering heat and the loneliness of living in a new town. All we could do all day was to stay inside and play video games or watch TV since we didn’t know anyone, and it was too hot to go outside.
This faded soon with the new year of school. I was nervous entering my sophomore year, but it was much better than my freshman year. For the first few months, I didn’t speak to anyone in fear of having to move again and lose what little friends I made, but I soon decided it was time to come out of my shell. I made my first friends, Gabbi and Jasmine. They approached me at lunch in the second month of school and announced that they were now my new friends, and I didn’t have a choice. I happily complied considering I had no one else. They got me to talk to people which was relatively new for me, and I tried hard to make new friends in all my classes. It went relatively well. I spent my sophomore year happy with all the new friends I had made.
The summer flew by incredibly quick as I waited for my junior year, and now I’m here, hopefully, to stay. This school has been amazing for me, it’s forced me to break out of my shell and make some wonderful friends along the way. I can’t wait to see what is to come.
