Narrative 1

The melting move

As a kid, you expect your life to stay the same—same town, same friends, the family pet living forever. I believed that too. Looking back, my world felt predictable, easygoing, even small but in the best type of way. I could walk across the street to my friend’s house without thinking twice. I knew how many sidewalk tiles it took to walk to the “haunted house.” The Four Star Diner knew my order before my family and I would even sit down. Life was simple, and I thought it would stay that way forever.

Then everything changed. One evening my mom and dad sat us down at the kitchen table. Their faces were calm but tense. I thought I had gotten caught playing with my Legos too late, but then they said it. My dad, with a deep breath, spoke: “We’re moving to Florida. I’ve been transferred to Jacksonville.” Sitting at the table, I remember just staring at the wood grain, tracing it with my finger. That news changed everything. The future I had imagined melted away.

For months, I struggled with the thought of moving. I would do things not knowing whether or not that was the last day I would see some friends or do certain things. As I packed boxes, I felt betrayal, asking myself how it was fair that I had to move. “Why me?” I would ask myself.

Then came the day—February 12, 2016. The movers were outside early that morning. The snow still lightly draped across the yard from what I assumed would be the last snowfall I’d ever see. I watched at the window as they loaded the truck, watching the gray slush form as they carried boxes from the house. All the animals were already packed into the car, barking and confused. My room, once filled with Legos and Pokémon cards, was now empty.

When the final box was loaded into the car, my mom shut the door. Looking back at it now, the door shutting was a chapter ending. As I climbed into the front seat of the car, we drove away for one last time from the home I thought I’d grow up in.

The drive to Florida felt endless. White slushy snow turned into brown fields and then into crabgrass and pine trees, each mile going further into the unknown.

Looking back now, Florida wasn’t what I expected. It was hot and humid, yes, but it wasn’t all palm trees and beaches or Disney World just large pine trees scattered throughout a small, middle-of-nowhere town. Moving into a new home, new school, making new friends all of it was difficult. At the time, I was angry, but through the grace of the Lord, moving to Florida was one of the best things that could ever happen to me.