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Your surroundings change you
Feb 28, 2019 5 years agoIt is always the stereotype that it is the families of soldiers in the military who move homes several times. Or perhaps rowdy teenagers who were kicked out of one school after the other. This however is not the case for me. Although I can't chalk up my numbers of times I've migrated with my family as anywhere as high as others out there. I believe it is higher than the average high schooler. Born in Korea and too young to remember anything, my family moved to Singapore. I grew up in Singapore until primary two before leaving for Korea at age 7. I clearly remember hugging a mutual friend goodbye as she left for her extra curricular activities at my last day of school. I can't remember her name or even if she was in the same class as I was but this last hug stuck with me. Once in Korea having spoken English for most of my life and Korean primarily with my mother, I was not in the easy position of making friends. However, after almost 2 years I picked up on the language and made many friends. A distinct memory includes 10 girls at my birthday party sleepover screaming and playing around. But again it was time to move and this time back to Singapore. My family and I moved into a new neighbourhood where again I was the new kid. I had a harder time making friends this time around but my previous experience in Singapore helped in that I remembered certain customs of the unique country. After some new adjusting again I made new friends. A memory I have that I find funny now is one in which I had started to tear up at a Singapore National Day song that was about home and family. I was missing my friends in Korea. Looking back now, I find this funny because I believe Singapore to be my home. In Singapore I stayed throughout my primary school education and to my secondary 2 level. Sadly however it was time to move again. And this time to Canada. I've been in Canada for 2 years now and I've had an even harder time to adjust and make friends. I still consider Singapore my home country and Canada as just the physical land in which I reside. Considering all these factors however, I am well aware of the possibilities Canada holds for my future as well as the possibility of me moving back to either Korea or Singapore. In the end of all the moves, loss of friendships, and change in who I am as a person, I am able to mark all of this up as both positive and negative factors that makes me who I am today. My lack of interest in traveling, my ability to adapt to any situation, and my overall understanding of how our surroundings and experience makes us unique individuals.
