Personal Narrative: Moving To Yemen

One moment, I was eleven, living happily in a house with my family. The next, my brother and stepfather had moved away, and the rest of my family and I would soon be following. The destination? Yemen. The reason? Religious study. Before I knew it, my mother and I had survived yard sales and packing, and we were on the intercontinental flight to what we would be calling our new home. I was excited and probably a bit nervous. When we finally arrived there and settled down, I felt anxious about having to adjust to a new culture and at times frustrated with the situation. Yemen would be my first time going overseas. But it would not be my first time moving around, norwould it be the last. Moving around has been one of the experiences in my life that has had a major impact on who I am today. I have moved around many times

I feel that I have gained some positive traits from it. I had to learn to become flexible. If I was told that I was going to be moving, I learned to accept it, and to prepare myself for the change, sometimes even becoming excited. As I got older, I began to see moving to a new place not only as leaving people behind, but as an opportunity to start anew. I also feel that moving has caused me to mature somewhat faster than some of my peers. I became used to being put outside of my comfort zone. This has perhaps given me the opportunity to experience situations that other people may not have. I think that moving forced me to grow up faster and handle things differently than others would. Eventually, I became used to living in Yemen, just like I became used to all of the other living situations. But Yemen was just one move out of many. Three months later, my mother, brother, and I moved back to the United States due to my mother’s illness. And once again, I said goodbye to a place that I had become comfortable living in to move to somewhere else and re-situate myself in Oklahoma all over