When I transferred to UTM my sophomore year of college, it was not the first time that I had moved down to Tennessee. The first time that I moved to Tennessee was my first semester of my senior year of high school; I had moved to Union City to live my dad. This was one of the toughest things that I have ever had to do at the time because I was leaving my hometown that I grew up in since birth. It was tough to leave my family and friends, especially my sister. Since we are twins, we have never really spent that much time a part until then. There were a lot of long phone calls that semester, and it was hard not being able to experience everything that senior year has to offer with all my friends back home. But I did get to experience what it is like to live in a new town before I went to college.
When I first moved to Union City, I was nervous because I was having to start at a new school and pretty much a new life. It was different because Tennessee and Illinois are totally different from each other. One difference between my hometown and Union City is the size of the towns. Rockford has about 147,000 people living there. So, there is obviously more to do in Rockford. We have a mall, movie theaters, laser tag and a waterpark. But when I moved to Union City, it was a culture shock because of how small the town is. Union City has about 10,000 people, so it was a lot different than Rockford. When I was not at school, I did not know what to do because of how small the town was and how limited the activities were. But, going to school kept me busy.
Changing schools and towns when you are a senior is very difficult. It is difficult because I went to school with a lot of the people I went to high school with since kindergarten. And it was the same with the people at my new school. It was hard because I was new, and people had already had their friends and so did I, but they lived nine hours away. Luckily, though, I was able to play volleyball and to make new friends, and that made living in a new city a lot easier.
I do not regret moving and going to a new school because I got a new perspective on a new place. Most people do not get that chance.