Personal Narrative: I Am A Russian Diad
My mom likes to say that I’m a Russian salad. I’ve got a little bit of everything in me: I have a Norwegian mom and a dad from Chicago; I’m a lanky redhead in a land of dark-haired short people; I speak English, Norwegian, Albanian and even some Spanish. Moving around and attending and international school has added even more variety to the salad that is my life. My family started out living in a city in the south of Albania called Vlora. Vlora was where my first years of preschool as well as life in general happened. Though I was only four years old I knew people and places all around the city. When the time came for my big brother Nathan to start first grade my parents decided to move to Tirana, the capital as there were no English speaking
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I was thrilled to be starting kindergarten at the same school my big brother was at. I was about to start my first year of REAL school in a class of kids who were just like me. The best thing of all, as my primary language had recently been switched from Norwegian to English, was that they all spoke English. However the move from Vlora and the beginning of my education at an international school changed everything. I was in a new city with new people and a new education system. Everything had changed, including my primary language. I had gone from being part of one of two missionary families to living in a city with hundreds of missionaries from all over the world. As a missionary kid change has become a very common occurrence in my life. Over the years I’ve made many new friends and had to say goodbye to old ones. I’ve had to adjust to new cultures, settings and even languages. The biggest aide that has helped me through difficult transitions has been my family. Though most likely not my last, I will soon be making what is probably the biggest transition in my life. Graduating high school means moving away from family. I will be forced to leave my comfortable and familiar “salad bowl” to create a future for myself. This move is something I both look forward to and dread simultaneously. I’m excited to experience new things and learn more about who I am but still become tense when thinking about making this transition and not
I was thrilled to be starting kindergarten at the same school my big brother was at. I was about to start my first year of REAL school in a class of kids who were just like me. The best thing of all, as my primary language had recently been switched from Norwegian to English, was that they all spoke English. However the move from Vlora and the beginning of my education at an international school changed everything. I was in a new city with new people and a new education system. Everything had changed, including my primary language. I had gone from being part of one of two missionary families to living in a city with hundreds of missionaries from all over the world. As a missionary kid change has become a very common occurrence in my life. Over the years I’ve made many new friends and had to say goodbye to old ones. I’ve had to adjust to new cultures, settings and even languages. The biggest aide that has helped me through difficult transitions has been my family. Though most likely not my last, I will soon be making what is probably the biggest transition in my life. Graduating high school means moving away from family. I will be forced to leave my comfortable and familiar “salad bowl” to create a future for myself. This move is something I both look forward to and dread simultaneously. I’m excited to experience new things and learn more about who I am but still become tense when thinking about making this transition and not