Born to Move

I was born while my family was moving.

That's not an exaggeration or some sort of made up mythical story. For realz, dead serious, I was born while my family was moving.

My dad was in the Navy, and the Navy doctor approved us to move in mid February because he thought I was due in March. He refused to believe my mother that I would be coming in February because I was "too small". My mom is 5'4" and barely weights 100 lbs. She tried to explain to him that small people sometimes have small babies. Well, the doctor didn't believe her and thus my family found themselves moving from Corpus Christi, TX to Sunnyvale, CA in mid-February.

My mom went into labor on Valentine's Day (Feb. 14th), and they stopped in El Paso, TX and I was born.

To make matters even better, my older sister and brother had the chicken pox, so I was isolated from all the other newborns because they thought I might be carrying it. I wasn't, so after three days they let us go on in our move.

So yes, I was literally born while my family was moving. Since then I have moved over a dozen times, and that's just counting the moves between cities, not the moves within cities.

My family one time decided to move on a Friday and moved on the following Thursday. We packed up a family of six and moved to a new state in less than a week.

So you might say I'm an expert mover.

Therefore, when my friends who have maybe moved once counting their "move" to college try to give me moving advice, you might imagine that I want to laugh in their face. Or slap them. One or other.

This has happened multiple times since I've announced to my friends that I'm moving.

One of my friends and I were discussing that I'm moving, he mentioned that moving is difficult, that it's going to be more difficult than I'm foreseeing. I looked at him a little surprised and was like, "Dude, I've moved before."

His response was, "This is different. You're moving without your family." My immediate thought was "How on earth do you know? You've never moved in your life until you moved after college." I know why he's having a hard time adapting. He's never moved before.

My actual response was "I moved without my family when I came to college."

Boy: "That was different. College is different."

Ok, I recognize this is true. I know this is true. College is a unique atmosphere where everyone is the same age. But it's hard for me to take him seriously when he says this, because when he "moved to college" he moved thirty minutes away from home. When I "moved to college", I moved 5 hours away to a city where I knew no one. I didn't treat it differently from any other move.

It is harder to make friends when not in school. I know this because I faced this at my co-op. But I did make friends, not with fellow co-ops like you may think, but with the full time employees near my age. I went to the occasional dinner with them, barbecue, and movie. Even though I was single and they were married, I was their friend.

I know this is not going to be easy, but I'm not scared. For some reason this guy thought I should be.

Another one of my friends tried to give me advice on moving the other day. I was joking with his fiancee, that they should send their kids to me in the summers (one day, far from now, when they have kids). I then commented that they should send me their kids so I wouldn't feel so lonely. Now, I didn't mean the kind of loneliness that comes without having friends. I meant the kind of loneliness that comes from all your friends getting married this year, therefore, they'll most definitely have kids before you do, therefore, you're going to be single when they have entire families.

My friend thought I meant not having friends and he was like, "You'll make friends. It's all part of moving." I wanted to slap him. I don't think this boy has ever really moved. College was two hours away from his parents, so maybe we'll let that count. If he's moved before that, he was very young. I've moved over once every two years my entire life (when averaged). I have never had a problem making friends outside of elementary school (those were dark times). I know how to make friends. I know what moving is like.

Which is not to say I don't want comfort and support from my friends, it's just that when people, who have no idea what they're talking about, try to advise you, it's just sort of amusing and a little bit insulting.

And really, my friends who have tried to be supportive by "giving me advice", have really come across in the opposite way--because I'm incredibly optimistic, so it almost seems like they're trying to bring me down.

So moral of the story, I'm excited and not worried at all. My worries are more of a mundane, filling out paperwork in a timely manner type worries.