“Personal Essay”
The experience of change
At 18 years old I can bravely say I no longer fear change. This wasn’t an easy fear to overcome and frankly I didn’t overcome it at my own decision. Ever since I can remember I have been tugged away from one place and placed in another whether that be a school or a country, and I haven’t always embraced perhaps as well as I should.
My Parents also always experienced change at a young age. My dad at age 14 moved from the freezing wonderland of Scotland to the heat of South Africa. My mom born in a small town Zimbabwe was thrown into the bustling city of Pretoria. When my parents fell in love they made a promise not to stay in South Africa because as beautiful as the land was, society didn’t represent the same beauty. They moved to London with some friends and as young adults in their twenties working and enjoying the amazing city my parents fell in love with what London had to offer. However, after two years they moved back to South Africa. I don’t view this as a set back because after all its not easy to leave your family behind.
I was born in South Africa during a rough time in the 21st century when ‘rape a baby and cure aids’ was the new fad in the country. After a car hijacking my family decided to leave their family and go across an ocean to Australia. I have and will always call myself Australian, considering it’s where I spent most of my life and both my younger siblings were born there. It’s my home, but even at home change is still all around you. I moved three times due to bullying and at my last school I had never been happier. One day my dad walked me down to the beach coffee shop and as we sat down he told me how change is good for a person, that remaining stagnant produces the fear of change and opportunity. As a 12 year old girl I didn’t really listen nor fully take in what he was saying because why would it matter to me but then he told me we were moving to America.
Keep in mind all I knew about America was what I had seen in the movies and all I knew was that if you wanted be ‘someone’ you needed to be someone in America. I was devastated, I didn’t know what it would be like nor was I wanting to see what it would be like. One year later we moved to Texas, I started in Carroll Middle School and the feelings of loneliness, confusion and sadness set in. I just had no idea what was going on half the time, everything was different and I didn’t know the culture or the social norms, after all I was a 13 year old girl living in a completely new place. However, I told myself theres worse things going on in the world and that I was so lucky to be given an opportunity like this, I will adapt and be happy and I did just that.
I look back now and see how these changes have shaped me to be the person I am, how lucky I am to see different parts of the world. It fascinates me so much how different each place is yet they share so many similarities. Don’t get me wrong every single place in the world has flaws but when you embrace a place you can see all the beauty and freedoms it has to offer. Once you choose to embrace change and take it head on the world seems so much happier and full of light. I’m still intimidated by change but you wouldn't be human if you weren’t. It can be scary, leaving normalcy and moving to complete abstractness but if you don’t take that step you’ll never know what else is out there for you to accomplish and conquer. Change is not a bad thing, it’s awaking from the dream of reality.
