When I first moved here to Colorado from Kansas City, Kansas, it was a big change for me and all of my family. We lived in a house in a town right outside of Kansas City called Bonner Springs, Kansas. We moved when I was just going into eighth grade and my sister was just going into fourth grade. We moved because my dad got a job with Pursell Manufacturing. My mom and dad have lived here before me and my sister were born and were best friends with the Pursells.
Early summer of 2022, my dad got a call asking him to come work for him and move to Colorado. My parents talked a lot with a bunch of people to try and figure out if it was was the right thing to do. My dad was working at a country club and recently got hired to be one of the main bosses, so he was working all the time and was barely home or had time with the family. This was very hard on our family as it was very rare we even got to eat dinner together.
Everybody said that this would be a good opportunity for our family, but me and my sister didn’t see it like that. We saw it as taking away the place we grew up and all our friends. And what was the worst of all is that most of our family was in Kansas. We were really close to all of our family and friends.
I personally took this move the hardest. I was already going through a rough patch in my life and knowing that I would be moving during eighth grade was hard.
It took us all summer to pack and sell our house. Our dad went to Colorado to visit a few times and start getting things ready, and we went once to look at schools and get registered. Finally, we were all ready to go.
Moving day came on August 6th, 2022. We were packing the moving van all day and finally left around four pm that afternoon. We said goodbye to our closest friends that lived right by us in our cul de sac, and then drove about 11 and a half hours to our new home.
We had four bunnies, and we had to set up a space for them in the back of the van. We were very grateful for the Pursells, who helped us find a rental. Our grandma and grandpa also bought a new house and moved to Colorado with us. When we finally got to Colorado, it was a lot of work helping my grandma move in as well as getting ourselves moved in. We moved a week before school started.
School started almost as soon as we got here and it went really well. My sister and I made a lot of friends. I had played volleyball a lot in camps but never on a team, so I joined volleyball during my eighth grade year.
Moving is hard, but moving here turned out to be a lot better for me and my sister and our family’s time together. My dad and mom now are home almost every single night. We are able to do more things and travel more, and most of the time, we even get to eat dinner together.
This move has taught me a lot of things, like how to get out of my comfort zone and learn how to make new friends, as I was used to knowing everyone because I grew up with all of them. I went through a lot of different emotions. Eighth grade me never thought that I would be saying this now, but I’m so glad we got the opportunity to move to Salida.
