With the whir of the airplane’s engine in my ears, my seatbelt fastened, and my window shield up I saw the city blur into the runway and fall from beneath me. My home was falling away from me, slipping through my fingers ever so gently. No more warm island air flowing off the shores. No more curious spirits coming out to ask questions. No more familiarity, no more Okinawa. Leaving the fast paced city life of Japan for the dragging suburbs of Hope Mills, North Carolina was like moving to foreign country very few have heard of. Moving to America strictly due to military orders might have changed my residency and showed the country in a new light, but it also changed the way I carry myself and presented myself to others.
Being a part of a military family means
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I moved to Okinawa when I was eight months old and left when I was thirteen years. Upon my move I started my first year of high school in a place where I knew not a single person nor thing, similar to how my parents started their thirteen journey abroad. Walking through the entrance of my new school, all my preconceived notions about the school went out the window. The roaring in my ears muffled all the excited chatter as I worked my way through the dense crowd and up the dual staircase, stumbling on few steps. Waiting for the bell to ring to signal the start of the day, I came to realize that I was going to be on my own for a while, and that it would be for the better. Living overseas majority of my life, a great sense of self-efficiency and independence is developed over time. Both of my parents raised my sister and I completely on their own, with no outside help from family or services. They are epitome of self-efficiency and independence. As a grew older I started to see how important it was to only rely on yourself and figure things out on your own. Relying on yourself forces you to start to understand who you are and what you are capable