In my gradeschool days, my family moved around a lot. We managed to live in over 10 different states BEFORE we moved to Illinois when I was in sixth grade. From North Carolina to Las Vegas, Nevada I've been all over the US. Army Brat? Nope... my dad was a Morning Show DJ on the Radio. Fun job... but a very volitile job market and we went where the jobs were.

This may seem really neat, and it was, but this whole picking up and moving thing became a very basic part of who I was. Think about it... if, virtually every year, you picked up and moved -- sometimes across town, sometimes hundreds of miles away -- eventually you would start to expect it. That's the great thing about young children, kids can adapt to virtually any sort of environment (healthy or otherwise) and learn to deal with it.

Now, as any kid would, I adapted. Being the new kid is not easy. Nobody knows you... generally speaking you're assumed to be a dork before people think you're cool. Making new friends can be really rough and there's no guarantee that it'll be a fast process. As a new kid you're seldom allowed in the "cool group." Moreover, what is cool one place may not be cool in the next place... every new place is a new challenge. You must be wondering: "Is there anything GOOD about moving around a lot?" Of course there is... you get to meet lots of people and you get a chance to start over everywhere you go: Big dork in your last school? These new kids don't know that... try again!

Such were the challenges of my youth. So how on earth does that affect me now? Simple. It is at the very core of who I am... so many of my personality traits can be linked to the aforementioned situations that sometimes it surprises even me. That's a nice sweeping generalization, what about specifics?

I have trouble connecting with people emotionally. Now, I have some VERY good friends... some VERY close friends... but even with my best friends I don't feel the same type of bond that other people seem to share with their best friends. To the same end, I "attach" to people VERY slowly... and "detach" very quickly. It's much easier to move around a lot if you don't have lots and lots of really good friends. I found out when I came to college that I was ready and willing to start COMPLETELY over... I was a total ass to friends and family for the first few months that I was at school. Apparently some deeply rooted instinct came along and said: "Well, time to start over and make new friends". Now, that's no excuse for my ass-like behavior... but it should provide some insight.

To say, however, that the experience has been all negative would certainly be unfair. In fact, some of my most valued traits are products of my family's nomadic nature. I feel very capable of being able to, on a whim, fit in with almost any group. And not even always "fit in with" but certainly "get along with". This has become an indispensible ability... so often in life our sucess is based, in whole or in part, on how well we connect with people. Though it seems quite contradictory, I learned how to be myself... how to not worry about what other people thought, to let them like me for me or not at all. This, I'd imagine, comes from the fact that I realized that you can't always be in the cool crowd. I think, at some point, I made the realization that what other people thought didn't really matter. Sure, I WANTED to be liked... sure I WANTED to be cool... but I guess I figured that it wasn't a huge deal. I would also be remiss if I didn't mention that it helped get me over a very involved relationship. After more than a year and a half together I was really, truly moved on after a week or so.

One very, very good thing that my parents did was to make the decision that once I reached High School we would stop moving. This, of course, required some huge sacrifices by both of my parents, but they bore them without a complaint or hassle. I don't really regard my moving around as being overly positive or negative, but I think that had I moved around a lot in HS it would've been a detriment.

I think that about sums up my feelings on the topic. If it doesn't, I'm sure I'll add on. :)