The question I hate getting asked the most is “So where are you from?” I honestly never know how to answer that. Is it the place I was born? Then the answer is Idaho. Is it the place that I lived the longest? Then the answer would be California. Is it the favorite place that I have lived? Then the answer might be Florida.
That question is so difficult for me to answer because for the past eighteen years, I have spent my life travelling around the country with my family. It has been an amazing experience, and I have gained so much from moving to a different state every two or three years. I have moved to five different states (six if you count the month or so in Alabama), and have lived in ten different houses.
There were definitely challenges to this kind of lifestyle. When I was little, I really had no idea what was going on each time the movers would come into our house and start packing up all of my books into boring, brown boxes. The smell of stale cigarettes and the sound of ripping packing tape was forever present in the house that was slowly being emptied. Shortly after, there would be a long road trip with my family where we would stay in countless hotel rooms – after a while they all start to blend together. After a week or so, we made it to the new house. It was empty and everything echoed. I always wondered about the family that lived there before us. What were they like? Where did they arrange their furniture? What memories did they make here? Soon, the movers would bring all our belongings back, and we had to set up the house in a new way. We had to try as hard as possible to make this bland, white walled, generic house our own, for at least the next two years. Sometimes I questioned about if it was really worth it when we would be gone in just a few years.
There was also the major problem of restarting your life in a new place. It was like someone had hit the reset button when you weren’t expecting it. The hardest part was having to find new friends and make new connections. I never got to grow up with my childhood friends; we were all scattered around the country. Sometimes, it felt as if there was no point in making friends because I was just going to leave them in a few years. But, I have had some friendships that have lasted through the challenges of long distance. It’s extremely difficult, especially when I was only thirteen trying to learn how to keep a friendship together when one of us is living in California and the other one is in Virginia. It made having relationships difficult as well because we both knew that everything would be temporary- it was as if there was a clock counting down the time we had left together. On the flip side; however, the friendships that did last I knew were extremely strong because we had gone through so much together.
However, there were many upsides to moving around. I got to travel around the country, visit places I may have never seen if I wasn’t in that situation and meet new and fascinating people from all kinds of different cultures. I believe the most rewarding part of moving around was how it formed me into the person I am today. I definitely feel mentally stronger and know that I am more able to adapt to change. I also realized how important family was. My family was the only constant I had. As many fights as we had, we all loved each other at the end of the day. We were always there for each other – just the five of us.
In 2013, we moved down here to Florida. We have lived here for about three years, and we decided that we were going to make this state our permanent home. At least for longer than two or three years. Just in the three years that I’ve lived here, I’ve moved to three different houses/apartments. I don’t know whether I will stay in Florida once I finish my undergraduate degree here at USFSP. Part of me still has the desire to travel and see all the places that I haven’t visited yet, and I feel like I’ve lived here too long; it’s time to go. On the other hand, I want a steady, constant life surrounded by familiarity. I love going to the same school and knowing all the people there for the next few years. I haven’t decided what to do yet, but I know that I’m not glued down to one place.
Looking back, I wouldn’t trade my experience for anything. It was an extremely important part in making me who I am today. For anyone who is considering moving or travelling but are too afraid to, I strongly encourage it. There is so much out there waiting to be discovered.
HC xoxo,
Alyssa Harmon
Photo Source: http://www.upstatesynergy.com/2015-seo-strategy-guide/