Breaking the News

We were eating lunch at Arby's when my mom broke the news to us kids that we would be moving overseas. I started crying into my curly fries while my little sisters started jumping up and down for joy. Somehow, it seemed as if this shocking, out-of-nowhere kinda news was exactly what they'd been waiting for during their entire less-than-a-decade of life. My sister, Anna, to this day, is still the type who feels that life gets a little too boring unless she moves to a different house at least once every few years (she's lived in, like, 7 houses in her 18 years, so I guess she's gotten her wish).

That's never been me. The 11-year-old crying at Arby's had already come up with big plans for her future. I was going to grow up in western Kentucky with all my best friends--when we got drivers' licenses we'd go to the mall in Bowling Green together, and when we graduated from high school we'd all go to college together. In my own mind, Kentucky was the only place I wanted to live, so when faced with the news that we'd be leaving soon, I didn't have the jumping-up-and-down with excitement reaction that the younger kids did.

Mom bought us some Arby's chocolate pies to cheer us up--except I was the only one who really needed cheering up, because the rest of them were already happy--adding chocolate pie on top of that happiness was just a bonus.

{Our first family photo on the shore of the Indian Ocean}

We didn't leave right away. It took quite a while for all the logistics and legalities involved in moving a family of 8 to the other side of the world to be worked out. On our last day in America, Mom and Dad took us all to the movie theater (at this point in my life, I could have counted the number of times that I'd visited a movie theater on one hand, so this was a pretty special event) to see what was probably the only family-friendly movie playing at the time: Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement

They bought me over with chocolate pie and a funny movie. I had no idea what was ahead, but with the vehemence only a preteen could have, I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be great.

I changed my mind 7 days after we arrived.

{This is the first post in my Write 31 Days Series: 31 Days of Growing Up In Malaysia.}