I spent my freshman year, and the previous 3 years before that, on Kadena Air Base, Okinawa Japan.  Attending Kadena High School, I was pretty involved, being part of the JROTC program and the basketball team.  And even though I knew that I would be leaving the summer after my freshman year, it never really hit me until the time came.  I was more excited to come back and live in the states, especially in Los Angeles because this is where I am from.  This would be the first time in 8 years that I would live in the U.S.  Although I knew it would be hard to leave my friends, I never really took into consideration how hard it would be to "start over" again.

    There is a lot of moving involved with being in the military.  This is now the fifth different place I have lived and I am not even 18 yet.  When I was younger, it was always easy to make new friends because you can basically relate to everybody if you go to school with the other military kids.  It is always harder to move once you get older, however, because many kids in public school have grown up with each other.  Therefore they most likely have their own cliques that they stick to and, depending on who the people are, may not want an outsider intruding on what they already have.  Coming to ESHS the first day of school was not too bad because right away I was welcomed by a few seniors, whom I still talk to today I might add.  I later met my bestfriends in the basketball program.  Even though El Segundo is a more different environment than I am usually accustomed to, I was able to fit in pretty well because of how welcoming a lot of the community is.

    The summer before our sophomore year started was pretty hectic because of the move and having to search for a school to go to.  While waiting for our house to be ready, we had to stay with my grandparents for the first 4 months.  This left me in limbo on what school I was going to attend.  Crenshaw and Dorsey High Schools are in the area, but it would have been harder to commute to one of those than El Segundo.  San Pedro High is the closest to where I would eventually live (San Pedro), but the worst place to commute from my grandparents house.  My parents ultimately decided on El Segundo because of its reputation and how close it is to where my dad works.  They figured that commuting from San Pedro is worth the education.

    Even with all of the factors that played into going to a new school, I feel as if my transition was very smooth considering everything we had to think about.  During my time here I have made great friendships and had fun times in these short 3 years.  I feel like leaving Japan benefited me because I came back to a place that I am already used to and the majority of my friends there all moved to various places, so there are only a few people remaining from my freshman year that I would actually be graduating with, had I stayed.  Besides, I feel at home now with the friends I have here and I am confident with all of the knowledge I have gained at ESHS that I will be successful in life.