My mom and I moved a few months ago. It wasn’t just a little move across town, we moved to a completely different state. Now at first it was so exciting; I loved the idea of finally living within the same state as my cousins and seeing them all more. But once the days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months, it got boring and lonely.

I never realized how much my friends meant to me, and now that they’re ninety minutes away, it stinks. I can’t just call one of them up and make plans for the day. I can’t go drive five minutes up the road to their house and rant for hours. We can’t have horror movie nights at my house. We can’t meet up for breakfast. I can’t drag them to the store. Worst of all, I can’t depend on them for anything anymore except an ear to listen to me telling them how much I miss them.

Communication is one of the toughest things to keep up after a move. What you don’t see anymore can become a distant memory if you don’t put effort into the friendship. That is one of my biggest fears. Being forgotten by some of the most important people in my life; the ones who were always there for me when I thought I was alone.

Family. Family is the one thing that has helped me through this move. Not knowing anyone and living in what feels like the middle of nowhere makes it very lonely. However, having a familiar face to go to the mall or to concerts with helps make me feel less of a newbie.

There are only a few upsides to having moved. One of them being a chance to start over and change my old habits. Especially with college, it’s highly unlikely to run into someone that I know on the street or at the store when I’m not at my best. College, that’s another reason. I get to live only thirty minutes from campus and not have to leave my mom behind hundreds of miles away. I never feel home sick, and when I need her help, she’s there instantly and I don’t have to wait till the next holiday break to visit.

There are plenty of times where I can hear my mom tell my grandparents that I miss my friends and that I’m lonely. Or my grandma notices I’m sad and my mom just says, “she misses her friends, that’s all.” It is true, I do miss them bunches, but that’s not the only reason. This was my first move and I feel like that makes this ten times worse. I had to move miles from my hometown. I moved away from everything I was so familiar too. It was a move away from where I grew up. We left behind so many amazing neighbors.

Now I don’t want my mom to think that moving was a bad thing (even though the title of this piece would state otherwise,) because I love being here with our family, but change is difficult for me. Making new friends is difficult for me. Driving to places when I don’t know where I’m going is difficult for me. But I guess that’s part of growing up and moving on with life. I guess it’s time to adult now.