“Moving from one place to another, and one house to another, is a big task. Write about one of your most memorable house moves.”
This kind of prompt really gets me thinking about the amazing life I have lived thus far, and by that I mean I’ve made some amazing moves in my lifetime. From crossing the Atlantic Ocean multiple times to driving cross-country from one coast to the other, it’s been a wild ride. I think the biggest eye opener move for me was moving to Germany after spending five years in North Carolina when I was in middle school. I say that mostly because I had become rather entrenched in the school and friends I knew, though I was excited for the adventure. I just didn’t know what to expect.
My Dad had left something like a month before we did so he could figure out living quarters and start getting acclimated to a new life on a new continent. He had been doing this whole career, so Mom and the kids waited until school was out during the summer after 6th grade for me and 9th grade for my sister. I was just coming into my own as a person, meaning I was truly becoming aware of social interactions, the fact that my face was covered with acne, and I’d have to make new friends looking and feeling about as awkward as anyone ever looks.
Long plane rides had never been a big deal for me since I’ve been doing them since before I can remember. Once we arrived at Frankfurt’s airport, Dad met us with an Army van and his NCOIC (that’s Noncommissioned Officer in Charge to you non-military speaking folk). Getting off a transatlantic flight means arriving at the beginning of the day right when your body is screaming at you to sleep. I remember it was raining when drove the hour or so back to our new home town, and I remember that I was excited because we were going to live on Hamburger Street! Close, but it really was Hamburg Straße.
Beyond the funny looking “b” in the German word for street, the kids in my neighborhood were American. I met a couple kids pretty soon after settling into the new house and found the local community swimming pool, which is a lot bigger thing in Germany that the States for some reason. The most exciting thing I discovered that summer, however, were blackberries! Just off a walking path that led downtown from our neighborhood were these trails that were covered in blackberry brambles, and man did I pig out!
It’s interesting what you remember and what you don’t. Sure this adventure was more than fifteen years ago, but there are things I remember crystal clearly and others that I can’t put my finger around. One example is the friends that I had my first year after moving to Germany. I remember a couple of the kids because they lived on my street or were in a lot of my classes, but I’m sure there were others. I remember having a hard time settling in mostly because my band skills were, relatively speaking, pretty awful. Granted the school band (I played trumpet) wasn’t anything to write home about, but it took me that first year to really get to be good enough to feel I could continue playing. Regardless, I’m sure not an easy move but it’s definitely one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had yet.
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