Allison Scobee
Camp Humphreys
<p>Moving from place to place as a military child can be difficult, especially as you get older and school becomes harder. The curriculum may change from place to place, and the people are different as well. As your stress levels rise, it becomes harder and harder to adjust comfortably. When I moved from Fort Stewart, Georgia, to Korea, it was my first overseas move. I hadn’t really been too worried when I moved to Georgia because in the States, the school wouldn’t be quite so different. I was constantly worrying about leaving my friends and my teachers and starting over in a place where I would only be living for about two years. I remember how upset I was over leaving my friends, because most of the friends you make over there leave before you do. My parents helped a lot with the move by getting me into contact with the school counselor from Humphreys Middle School. She in turn gave the email of some of the student ambassadors. I picked a random name and began to email the student. Through her, I was able to figure out where the school was in their curriculum and how easy it would be to get caught up. Humphreys gets a lot of new students, so they were experts on how to help new kids to adjust. On my first day, I was nervous about where to sit at lunch, how I would find my classes, and how big the school was. At that time, the middle school and the high school were in the same building, making that first day all the scarier. I climbed off the bus and made it to the office in one piece, and there was the girl I had been emailing. She was really nice and gave me a tour, let me use her locker, and showed me where all of my classes were. At lunch, I didn’t have to sit alone because she let me sit at her table, where I found some of my best friends. To any student moving overseas and nervous about it, I would strongly advise that you get into contact with your new school’s counselor and with students there. It will make the move that much easier, and you may even find someone to eat lunch with. Even if you can’t contact a student, I would still try to speak with the counselor, because chances are that they will be able to give you more information about the curriculum than a student will. Try to talk to teachers, too. Every teacher has an email and will be able to tell you about their class and the type of students in each class. Moving to a new place can be difficult, but leaving an old one can be even more so. I would strongly advise you to keep in touch with friends back home. I’ve kept in touch with most of my friends from Georgia, including my one of my best, Arianna. It makes the move so much easier because you don’t miss home quite so much. Keeping up with your old friendships means that it makes the transition overseas and the transition back to the States easier when you have people that you know waiting for you. Adjusting to a move will always be difficult, but keeping in contact with old friends and reaching out to new people can make that adjustment much easier.</p>