During my childhood, I hadn’t moved around much. I lived in Illinois all my life. My family moved from Chicago, where I was born, only 2 years after we’d first come to Illinois. My current home has been mine and my family’s only home for 14 years. My parents moved from Kenya and built a new home, new life, and a new chapter here in Illinois. 

As time passed, things have changed, and now after I graduate, we will all have a new place we call home. I will only move an hour and a half away to Chicago to attend Loyola, whereas my family will move down south to Tennessee, nearly an eight hour drive. While, yes, I considered schools in that area, the best option for me ended up being to stay. So sadly while I’ve been with my family in the same place for 14 years, we’ll be in separate states, and my family will have to adapt to new life in a new state. Going to college in a new city with new opportunities is going to be an experience that I know will make me happy, but going through all this without any immediate family near me is a huge change. I want to be able to depend on myself for important things, but people like my sister and my parents are always there for me no matter what. Adjusting to that change will be difficult and different, but I am ready to endure the challenge. 

Being the first in my family to go to college straight out of high school makes it so even if I need advice there’s only so much my family can tell me. Learning will be a process I’ll have to depend on myself for and hopefully that results in my own growth and success. I am so proud to have picked a school I know I feel at home at. I wonder what I can bring from home to help me flourish in college. The amount of questions and concerns I have don’t compare to my excitement and enthusiasm to be in a different learning environment with new diverse perspectives and experiences from tons of different people.

To close, I have made it past my initial fear of moving and starting again and I have reached the stage of being purely ready and excited to start a new chapter in my life. I can’t wait to pass this information down to my children or my sister, and more than anything I can’t wait to begin a life of my own.