A New Home

Part I:

Throughout my last year of high school my mother slowly packed items that I would need to take with me when I left Gloucester.  Our basement begun to fill with blankets, sheets, a television, a fridge, and everything else I would need to take with me. Things I would need to take with me to a place that I did not even know the location of yet.

Finally, letters began to come in the mail and by April I had decided on the location of my new home. I was going to be attending school at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. All the packing began to make sense now that we had somewhere to bring it all too. But I still had to leave most of my stuff behind. I had my clothes and other essentials, but my decorations and old pictures were left in my room. I had other decorations for my new room and not enough space for the old ones as well.

As summer came and went my room began to become more and more bare. Most of my clothes and necessary things were being put in boxes and for the last two weeks I had very few wardrobe options. It felt like my stuff had moved before I had.

Saying goodbye to my life in Gloucester was hard, but I knew that it was not a permanent move and I would be able to go back and visit. I was leaving behind my family, friends, job, and my home. Once in Lowell I would no longer be able to smell salt in the air everywhere I went, or hear the annoying seagulls cawing as I drove through the town. I would have to adjust to a new way of life, and I would have to do it by myself.

Though Gloucester is a city, it has more of a small town feel because of the relationship between the citizens. You cannot walk down a street in Gloucester without being stopped and chatting with at least two people you know. I was afraid to live in a bigger city like Lowell; where I would not know anybody and I had been warned not to wonder the streets by myself like I had at home.

Not a day went by that I did not see members of my family or my friends. My cousins and I would often spend Sundays at my Grandma and Papa’s house for “bista zugu”, better known as spaghetti to people who do not know the Gloucester Italian slang. My friends and I would meet up most nights after we all got out of work and have movie nights or go to Lighthouse Beach and just hang out and enjoy the cool summer night. I was terrified to leave it all. What if I couldn’t find friends at school like my friends at home?

Finally Move-In Day arrived. We borrowed my Auntie Beth’s minivan and stuffed it to the brim with everything I could possibly need. My life was going to change drastically. My mother would no longer be in charge of cooking me dinner every night, doing laundry for me, and cleaning up after me. I now had real responsibilities. I was extremely nervous, but when I arrived at the University of Massachusetts Lowell I realized that so was everyone else.

The first weekend I was at school, my roommate and I were sitting in our room with the door open and some kids came in and asked us if we wanted to go out with them, we said yes and went out to the common room to wait for them. We soon learned that they wanted to go to a Frat Party, and when another girl came out and asked us to go to the Silent Disco at University Crossing with her and her friends we jumped at the new opportunity.

These girls have become our best friends at school, and though they are not my friends at home, I love them too, just in a different way. Now everything seems to be falling into place, and Lowell is starting to seem more and more like home. I have friends that I see all the time and when the weather is nice we spend time outside walking through Lowell. Quite a few times we have walked the River Walk or walked to downtown Lowell to visit some shops.  

Living in Lowell is starting to become very similar to living in Gloucester. Though it’s not the ocean, I can still see and hear roaring water every day. I can go for walks, as long as I am with at least one other person, and enjoy certain parts of Lowell. I have learned that not all of Lowell is the bad place that people have warned me about. I am adjusting to my new life in a new city with all new people and I love it.

I know that I will never forget the time I have spent and will spend in Lowell at the University and in the rest of the city. And I know that I will feel similar anxiety about leaving here that I felt about leaving Gloucester to come here. Lowell has become a home to me, no matter where I end up, this city will always be home.  

Part II:         

Without by Marisa Silver tells about the movement of a seven year old girl from her home in Cleveland, Ohio to New York and her experience with the big move. I chose this piece because I felt as though I could relate to this story in my own way with my move from Gloucester, Massachusetts to Lowell, Massachusetts. Though she was just a child at the time, I shared similar feelings about making a move to a completely different environment than the one I had grown accustomed to. Like Silver, when I moved to Lowell I was upset about leaving my life behind, but I also felt excited about the new life I was about to create. Silver structured the essay in a way that started with thoughts of moving, to taking baby steps in the process, and finally to moving. She incorporated stories throughout the essay that take place in both Cleveland and New York and she tell her readers about the emotions that were involved with the move. I tried to follow her structure, but I strayed in some senses because my story does not involve tragedy of losing my belongings forever. Though I felt like I lost many things and I was separated from many of my belongings for long periods of time, I will eventually get my belongings back. I did not lose everything forever without any say in the matter. Marisa Silver lost her childhood, all the physical reminders of it had been lost in the fire. I was only leaving my childhood behind for a couple months at a time.

My story incorporates Lowell and explains my feelings about the city. Originally I was nervous to live in Lowell because I thought it was going to be a dangerous and scary place to live and being completely different from my home in Gloucester. I was listening to others opinion of the city and believe what they had to say. But, as I explain in my essay, when I got to Lowell I got to know the city for myself and began to form my own opinion. I had gone on adventures through Lowell and have learned about the different places of the city, just like I have done back home. I know that weekdays after school hours students from Lowell High School go to the area outside of the Boott-Cotton Mills and breakdance and hangout with their friends. I know that there is a little bakery downtown that has amazing cupcakes. I have learned that bubble tea may be the most delicious thing ever. I have learned a lot about the city by moving to Lowell. In my variation of Without I explained how my views of Lowell changed and how I began to love this city as much as my own. With my essay I did not only want to write something that was similar to Marisa Silver’s piece, I wanted to explain my connection to Lowell and show that your experiences in a place can change your opinion of it.