50 Moves and Counting
I’ve made 50 moves so far. Most of my closest friends know that I made 27 moves before graduating from high school, in fact, the day I graduated from high school, my celebration party took place in an empty house because the movers had already taken everything from Grand Junction to Lakewood, Colorado. After that move, I made another 23 moves before finally landing back here in Lakewood. When I first tell someone about all the moves I made, they ask one of two questions: what did your father do for work? or how did moving so much affect you?
My family moved a lot because my father worked as a mining engineer. The majority of his work was done getting a new mine ready for its first production run. He would build a hoist house, head frame and bucket system to transport material an people in and out of the mine. He would set up generators for power and drill sample sections for specific materials (gold, silver, coal, etc). This process usually took about a year and a half to complete, then we would be onto the next town. The typical pattern upon moving to a new town would be to rent a house or apartment for six months, the move to a better location or place for another six months to a year. Sometimes the work in the area was really good with lots of mining and my parents would buy a house. However, after living in the new house for a year or so, the economy would collapse and we would move again.
As to how moving affects me, I’m not really sure because I’ve never known anything different. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have friends who knew me in first grade. I’m not really in touch with anyone that knew me before my junior year of high school. Even then, my best friend in high school is someone who rarely keeps in in contact with me. Most of my friends today are people that I knew in Las Vegas or have met in the last couple years here in Colorado. Does this make me better at adapting and making new friends? I don’t really think so. I’m sort of slow in making new friends–more of a person who hangs back and waits for people to talk to me. How about you? Did you move a lot?
