Something Annie: Happy 3 Years.

Well, it's officially been 3 years since my family moved to Utah! We moved in the winter of 2013, and we went from 80 degrees, to 12 degrees in a matter of hours. It took us 2 days to actually get from our house in California to our new house in Utah. We decided to stop in St. George on the way there, and basically just crashed there. I remember driving past the Utah border like it was yesterday, and crying to my dad. Or the night before when I had to say good bye to all of my close friends.

When my parents gave us the news that we would be moving to Utah I thought for sure they were joking. I started laughing, but then as I was walking home the next day from school I saw a "For Sale" sign in our front yard. I was so mad. How could anyone want to leave beautiful California?? My parents told me that we would be out of our house within the next 2 months. I started sobbing, and was in complete frustration. I had everything going for me in California. Social life, school, my lds ward, volleyball, boys, Disneyland, the beach, etc... I was devastated. The next day I told my volleyball coach I wouldn't be continuing high school volleyball anymore, and then all of my teachers. Everyone was in disbelief that I would be moving to Utah. I had a last Disneyland trip with Cortney and a few other girls, and a last beach trip, and then the next week I moved.

The day of the move, we were packing all last minute things and then we were off to Utah. We were leaving 80 degree sunny weather that morning. The next day we pulled into our new neighborhood which was covered with snow. We pulled up to our house, and I immediately started crying. It hadn't felt real until that moment. We then went inside and began unpacking. I was in charge of the kitchen [4 hours later].

The first day of school was a nightmare. Luckily I had a girl from my ward show me around, and she introduced me to a TON of people. I was kind of weirded out the first couple of days of school, just because I wasn't used to Mormons everywhere. Literally everywhere. Some of my teachers would even bring up the gospel (was that even allowed???). I didn't want to go to school, and was looking to graduate early. There was still tons of great kids that were extremely nice to me, but no one would ever invite me anywhere.

I started going to mutual at my ward, and one activity we had was an ice skating activity. (Ice skating is not my forte) I decided that day that I was going to make some solid friends in my ward. Luckily, by the end of that activity I met Austin H. who I'm actually great friends with still to this day! I started being friends with other kids in the ward, and other kids at school slowly.

By the end of my Junior year I really felt like I belonged in Utah. It took a lot time, encouragement, and prayers, but I couldn't be more happy than where I am now. Change isn't easy, for anyone really. I learned so much about myself though from this move and learning to adapt to new things, than any other experience I've gone through. Happy 3 years.