The summer after my seventh grade year my dad told me that if we moved it would be during my sophomore year, so that’s what I was preparing for. Of course that’s not what’s going to happen. We got a call yesterday that we are going to move sometime this year, not next year. My dad said that Chevron is already trying to find the location that needs him more. I seriously don’t expect to day to go well. “Emily, are you almost ready for school!” my mom shouted up the stairs.” Yes, I’ll go start the truck,” I shouted back. Why do we have to move this year? I though as I walked to my moms truck, Dad said we’d move NEXT year. My mom got in the truck and we drove to Midland Freshman in silence. When she parked for me to get out she said, “Emily, I know that this is going to be hard for you, but please try and have a good day.” “Ok, love you bye,” was my response.

Today is the first day of school and for once I’m not looking forward to seeing my friends. As I walked through the doors I was so deep in my thoughts that all I could hear was the dull thumping of my pulse in my ears. I was still engulfed in my thoughts when my boyfriend walked up to me. I was as scared as a person with stage fright speaking on live T.V. when he got my attention and the noise hit. It was so loud I thought I’d die of panic. “Hey, is something wrong?” he asked with a look of concern on his face. “No, I’m fine,” I lied. “Ok well it’s time to go to homeroom. See you at lunch!” he said as he walked away.

The rest of the week went fine. I didn’t tell anyone that I was moving and I managed to stay relatively upbeat. That was, until Wednesday. I showed up for youth and went down to the basement and managed to keep my cool until my best friends showed up. As soon as my friend Sam walked in she saw that something was wrong. “Emily what’s up you look bummed?” she asked as she walked up. I knew I had to tell them so I dragged them into a dark, empty class room. “Yeah Emily you look really sad,” my friend Cassidy added as I turned the lights on. By now I was a dam waiting to burst. I started to tell them and after the first few words they knew what was happing. So for the entire two hours of youth the three of us sat in there bawling our eyes out. “So do you know where to?”Sam sobbed. “No,” I whimpered, “we don’t know they haven’t told us yet.” “Who all knows?”Cassidy asked. “Well you guys and who ever my parents and brother told,” I replied trying to compose myself. Just then my phone started to buzz. “It’s my mom hold on a sec,” I said as I picked up my phone. “Hey mom… No I’m with Sam and Cass… No I haven’t seen Spence… Do you want me to look for him? ... ok…ok…I’ll meet you at the truck… ok bye.” I hung up the phone. “Well guys I’ve got to go. See you on Sunday,” I suggested as I walked out the door. “Ok see you Em,” they said in unison.

The next month went by and we still hadn’t got a call to determine where we were going or even when we where to leave. One Friday afternoon my dad came home and immediately went to go talk with my mom. I had just finished my homework and was starting to get ready for tonights football game when my parents came into my room. “Emily we know where we’re moving,” my mom said as she closed the door. “Ok where to,” I questioned. I managed to keep my voice calm, but the sound in the room got slightly muffled. “Dubai,” my dad answered. “Cool I thought Dubai looked really neat,” I responded,” When are we moving?” “They want us there by at least January,” my dad said. “January? Don’t you think that’s kind of soon?” I asked. “I know it is sweaty but they really need daddy over there,” my mom said. They asked me if I was ok and that whole routine before letting me continue getting ready for the game.


A little after half time the freshman band was released so my boyfriend came to sit with me for the rest of the game. “Hey Stetson,” I said as he walked up. “Hey Em. Some game right, 42 to 0, we’re doin’ pretty good,” he replied as he sat down. “Yeah. So we need to talk about something,” I blurted. “Let me guess, it’s about where you’re going to move to,” he said quizzically. “Um…yeah,” I said baffled, “that’s exactly what I wanted to talk about.” “Spence has been venting to me the last few weeks that the year he starts to really make some friends you guys move,” he explained. “Wow ok. Well we finally got a location and a time we need to move out by,” I grumbled, “It’s Dubai and we need to move out by January.” “Oh Emily I’m so sorry,” he said as he hugged me. I was as stiff as a statue for the next five minutes or so. It was all I could do to prevent myself from crying. December had come and gone and the move date was rapidly approaching.


The night before the move I heard Spencer sniffle a few times so I went over to his room to check on him. “Hey you ok?” I asked as I walked in. “No!” he sobbed into his pillow. “What’s wrong Spence, I thought you wanted to move from Midland?” I asked. “I did until this year. I made some real friends! Now it’s going to be just like when we moved here,” he moaned. “Spencer I know this is going to be tough, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be bad. Just you wait; you’ll even make some new friends in Dubai!” I told him. “I know, but it’s hard for me to make friends,” he complained. “It will be if you keep that attitude. Now come on and get some sleep we’ve got several fights to catch tomorrow,” I ordered.

The next morning it was freezing cold and the smelled damp. When I walked out the door I noticed that it was snowing lightly. Great, I thought to myself, why isn’t it snowing hard enough to cancel our flight? As we were packing up the truck a rental car drove up. I was walking up to see who is was when my friend Kaitlin got out of it. “Kaitlin!” I exclaimed, “what are you doing here?!” “I wanted to come say goodbye in person,” she responded. She helped me finish packing and then we messed around for a little while. She rode with us in the truck while her parents followed us to the airport. When we got to the airport a lot of my friends were there to say good bye which made me feel better about leaving Midland.


After lots of hugs and tears I was finally dragged to security by my parents. As I got on the plane I didn’t think about how much I’d miss Midland, but I thought of my new life in Dubai. Then just like that, Midland was gone from my window as I speed into my new life.