I don’t know what’s harder than leaving everything I know or having the constant change all around me happening in a blink of an eye. Coming to Smyrna, Georgia from sunny blue sky Santa Monica, California used to only be a summer experience for two weeks give or take a few days.

 One moment I was sitting down at home with all of my friends doing my normal daily routine and within a snap of a finger, I was packing all of my belongings and saying goodbye to my friends and seeing LA leave my grasp and fall under me as I was heading to the South. I know I will never be a Georgia Peach or settle with a southern boy but I guess I will never say never because anything can happen.

 I was born and raised in the city of Angels and I can honestly say, I never realized how great of a place it was until I finally left. It will always remain close to my heart wherever life takes me. Everything about it describes my personality and me. The way I dress, talk, walk, act, etc. is all about California. The weather, scenery, night life, the beach is so different compared to Georgia.

I live in one of the richest cities in LA only ten (maybe less) minutes away from the beach and everything is in reach. When I was in LA, I took for granted everything I had. I’m spoiled rotten and get everything I want and my mom wanted me to see a different way of life. Besides, talking to her had become unbearable and the constant fighting and not getting along was getting tiring. So, I decided to eliminate myself from the equation and place me in a new setting. I knew it was going to be a hard challenge but I’ve been through heaven and hell so I knew I would only get stronger from the experience.

 At my new school, I may seem quiet and shy but I really am not. I am actually the furthest thing from it. I am loud, outgoing, friendly and nice to everyone I meet but in Georgia everything is so different that I feel out of place and out of my comfort zone. I just don’t feel comfortable yet and until I do that’s when I can completely open up. I am only staying at Campbell for one semester and then returning back to LA to do my senior year there. So in a way I feel like an observer who has a close bond with my certain group of friends with an everyday electronic connection to them but yet I am still detached from my friends and family there.

 Despite moving to a different state, I live with my godmother who lives a completely different life compared to my Filipino one. She is African American with a three year old son and even though I have known her since I was fourteen months old, I still feel out of place and unbalanced because I am just not home.

From moving to a different state, not living with my family, leaving my friends and school and feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders, it is already overwhelming enough. But I know that when I return back home over summer that I will come back a different person with new life lessons and experiences that I will remember for the rest of my life.