As the daughter of a U.S. Army soldier, I had experienced life changes by the age of 12 that many adults don’t experience in a lifetime. Moving from state to state, country to country, leaving families, friends, homes, and cultures, living through several of my father’s deployments, the most jarring event of my life appears comparatively small. In the summer of 2013, while my family was stationed in northern Italy, my older brother Jed moved to the states to begin college. At the time, I didn’t fully realize the impact this event would have on me. I knew, of course, that my life would change; after all, I would be spending the next few years as the only child of the house. However, this seemed to me like a change I could take in my stride.
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Nothing about my situation there had changed; I still had few peers to interact with, still had a father that I disagreed with, still had a mountain of schoolwork to do. But something had changed in me, even from when I had first moved to Maryland. For the first time, I felt as though I had truly grown up. When I first came to Maryland, I felt that growing up would mean breaking away from my loved ones, carving out a path on my own, never relying on others for anything. I wanted to make my own friends, but not need them; to feel completely independent. When my efforts to do this failed, I not only felt as if I had failed at my own life goals, but that I was trapped with what I had always had – and I grew to hate it. I now realized that I needed my loved ones around me. I needed my parents’ care and concern, Jed’s passion and humor, Maggie’s compassion and warmth. I understood that independence and adulthood did not mean rejecting the past, but embracing whatever the future held. It meant taking what I had and making the most out of it. Just because our brief stay in Maryland did not turn out the way I had expected did not mean my future was hopeless – it was just …show more content…
I still have periods of anxiety or depression, but I now know how to handle them and they pass quickly. I know now that it is just a mental illness that runs in my family that had become exacerbated by my situation in Maryland. I moved back to my hometown in Georgia at the beginning of this year, reconnected with my old friends, and have made new ones. I have graduated high school and begun my path of higher education. My future seems more hopeful and full of potential now than it ever has before. Though my short time in Maryland was dark, miserable, and at times surreal, I am glad to have come through it, grown from it, and learned to fully appreciate how blessed of a life I have. Though my life has not turned how I expected it to, though I still have vastly different ideas from what my parents believe, though I have not become absolutely “independent,” though I sometimes feel fretful about my uncertain future, I now have faith that, with help from those I love, I can overcome
Nothing about my situation there had changed; I still had few peers to interact with, still had a father that I disagreed with, still had a mountain of schoolwork to do. But something had changed in me, even from when I had first moved to Maryland. For the first time, I felt as though I had truly grown up. When I first came to Maryland, I felt that growing up would mean breaking away from my loved ones, carving out a path on my own, never relying on others for anything. I wanted to make my own friends, but not need them; to feel completely independent. When my efforts to do this failed, I not only felt as if I had failed at my own life goals, but that I was trapped with what I had always had – and I grew to hate it. I now realized that I needed my loved ones around me. I needed my parents’ care and concern, Jed’s passion and humor, Maggie’s compassion and warmth. I understood that independence and adulthood did not mean rejecting the past, but embracing whatever the future held. It meant taking what I had and making the most out of it. Just because our brief stay in Maryland did not turn out the way I had expected did not mean my future was hopeless – it was just …show more content…
I still have periods of anxiety or depression, but I now know how to handle them and they pass quickly. I know now that it is just a mental illness that runs in my family that had become exacerbated by my situation in Maryland. I moved back to my hometown in Georgia at the beginning of this year, reconnected with my old friends, and have made new ones. I have graduated high school and begun my path of higher education. My future seems more hopeful and full of potential now than it ever has before. Though my short time in Maryland was dark, miserable, and at times surreal, I am glad to have come through it, grown from it, and learned to fully appreciate how blessed of a life I have. Though my life has not turned how I expected it to, though I still have vastly different ideas from what my parents believe, though I have not become absolutely “independent,” though I sometimes feel fretful about my uncertain future, I now have faith that, with help from those I love, I can overcome