When I was just ten years old, I was about to undergo a huge life change. At the time, I had been living in New Hampshire for a long time. I had been homeschooled since kindergarten and doing gymnastics at the same gym for five years. Therefore, almost all my friends were gymnastics people. If you guessed that my story is about moving, you would be right.

One morning, my parents told my siblings and me about the plan. They told us that they found a really nice house in Connecticut. I was hyped about this, not realizing what I would lose if we did move.

That afternoon I was sitting with my family in our living room looking at pictures of our soon-to-be house. I could hardly process everything that was going on. It was just too much for my ten-year-old brain. First, we had moved only a year and a half before. We only moved to a house about ten minutes away but I’d still count that. Second, where had this idea come from? One minute we were planning on living happily ever after in our house, and the next we were planning on moving to a completely different state.

I had so many close friends that I would miss. Although I was aware of this, I thought I’d be able to visit every couple of weeks and still maintain my friendships. But those were the naive thoughts of a 10-year-old. I wasn’t quite grasping just how far we were moving. We moved from Southern New Hampshire to Southern Connecticut which was about a 3-and-a-half hour drive. After living in New Hampshire for eight whole years, I left everything in a matter of weeks.

Because I left my sport, I also left all of my friends. After we moved, I had to make new friends, start at a public school for the first time, and start a whole new sport because there wasn’t a good gym option.

The school thing really got me. I wasn’t really sure how to make new friends because I’d always had the same friends my whole life. I found myself longing to go back to New Hampshire but no matter how much I begged, my mom refused to let us visit. She told me the drive was too long and we were too busy with other things in Connecticut.

I started to forget about the life I once had. I slowly started making new friends. My mom also told me that I’d need to start a sport so that I could stay athletic.

She enrolled me in a few dance classes with the hopes I’d like it. Her hopes came true, I  loved it. I started with just two recreational classes but the next year in 7th grade, I joined a competitive dance team. Even now, in 8th grade, I still dance. Dance is my passion and I’m so happy that opportunity opened up for me.

My parents wanted to move because they wanted new opportunities to open up for us. I didn’t know what they meant back then, but I understand now. So many new opportunities have appeared for me since I moved here, including academic, dance, and social opportunities. Now, when opportunities present themselves, I’m less likely to hold myself back.