Writing Moving Realistically

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I know a thing or to about moving. Don't even try to argue with me about this. I have lived in five different places over the course of my life. Granted, all of the places I've lived have been in Maryland, but moving is moving, y'all. Not to mention, all of my friends but, like, four, have been military and moved around a lot themselves. And I've had a lot of friends in my life.

So I would call myself an expert on the subject. (straitens invisible tie)

Now have a seat, imma tell you what moving is really like.

1. Moving is HARD.
       First, you're leaving the lovely house you had before. Everything you like about your house, all the places that have such fond memories? They're gone. And in some cases, the house might even be getting demolished (this happened with one of my houses). For another thing, you're uprooting everything. If you're moving to an entirely new place like a different state, you have to find a new school or a new job, or both! And you have to find new friends and figure out which stores your new house is close to so you know where you can shop, and... (*inhales*. *exhales*) It's just a lot of stuff.

NOT TO MENTION! You have to pack up everything you own into carefully labeled boxes, and carefully arrange it all so that the boxes aren't too heavy/nothing gets broken, and THEN! You have to get it all into a truck (again, without breaking anything) and then get it all out of the truck again and stuff it all into the new house. And even then, stuff might not even end up in the right room. You might not find your dinner plates for weeks.

2. Moving can be emotional.
       Need I repeat, you're leaving all your friends (and any family) behind. You have to completely restart in a new place. I've only ever lived in one state, so I've never had to find new friends, but I know the struggle from other parts of my life. I'm honestly not sure who has it worse: the person who has to move or the people they leave behind. Due to the fact that most of my friends have been military, most of them have moved away at some point or another. It's rough for everyone involved. If you've ever watched Earth To Echo, I'll have you know I bawled at the end.

3. Moving takes a while (both before and after the actual move)

       Before you move, all you ever talk about is moving. What stores are near the new house, how many rooms it has, how big the yard is, when we're starting the packing process, etc. Then you actually have to pack (oy, finding enough boxes is a nightmare) and get everything moved. Then after you move, all you do is unpack stuff. For weeks. Like I said before, sometimes you don't know where the boxes went, so first, you have to actually find everything. Then you have to figure out where to put everything in the new place.

4. After a while, you kind of get sick of it.
There are two reactions to moving:

 or

       I have a pretty adventurous spirit, but after moving four? five? times, I'm a little done with it. It's still an adventure for me, and I doubt I'm done moving just yet, but it's less fun than it was when I was little. I don't know if I could stand being a military wife.

5. Kids who have moved a lot can tell the difference between the two kinds of houses.
       It's a sad truth. A kid who has moved a ton can look at your house and tell if that's where you've lived forever. Everything on the walls and the way the furniture is arranged just has this... look. Everything just looks like it's always been there, as opposed to the houses where people have only lived for a short time, where everything looks not quite settled yet. We can tell.


I think that's all I have to say on the subject. Have you ever moved to a completely different place? Do you know what I mean about houses that just look permanent? Let me know in the comments.

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