Coming of Age Rough Draft

I’ve been living on this island for about eleven years now, and I’ve accustomed to the environment, perhaps even too accustomed. One night, early as the first quarter where school would properly start, my broke news on our family that make all of uneasy. He told us that he has been finding difficulty finding new job openings, to a point where we have to the mainland and start anew. Now there’s nothing wrong with my dad, he has graduated from college, and have earned a living for our whole family by being a pharmacist, he just can’t find new openings in this tiny rock in the middle of the ocean. And of course, me who have been too used to the 11 years I’ve been on this island, the one who made many friends who will now have to leave them, I was shocked. I almost couldn’t believe it. I didn’t complain or anything, but I was frustrated, hoping that my dad never has to move so we can live the rest of our lives on the island I’ve lived for years.

After that point, I’ve never really found the motivation to think about it properly, all I’ve been thinking was about me and why I don’t like, how it hinders my current lifestyle. And whenever my mother asks me what my opinion on this is, it’s always the same thing, “If I leave, I won’t be able to do this or that with my friends” or “How am I supposed to make friends when there’s a 2% population of asians in texas”. (and yes I actually said that, mostly due to majority of my friends being asian) All the answers been the same, and I’ve been selfishly neglecting what the opportunities are truly behind this experience. I guess my mom noticed or something, because when she came to pick me up from school one day, she brought up the topic again. And of course, I say the same, selfish thing. Then my mom asked, “Then what do you think about your friends who are a military family, what do you think they go through” I never really thought about it that way, but if I truly thought about it, yeah, they do almost always go through that, it's actually more of a miracle if their parents are stationed for longer than they should. When either military parent gets stationed, they have to move and leave behind everything they might have just gotten used to, friends, environment, and overall comfortability, they have to get rid of it all.

That alone made me stop and question myself. Do I really have a right to complain when my friends gone through it multiple times before me, that it’s just not me who has to deal with change in lifestyle. I guess humans are really are not accustomed to change. From that point on, I tried to look at more positively, thinking about the good things about moving to the mainland, and how I can easily make new friends if I really try. I told my friends about the current situation I’m in, and never complained. They understood it’s a no-choice situation so it can’t be helped, I’m just glad that I’m not selfishly thinking about what I want as much anymore, I feel that I should look at things more positively, or at least neutrally before I reach a conclusion, just like this. Man, can’t wait to see what the mainland is like.