It was almost two years ago, but I remember that January day like it was last week. My mom was on the phone with my grandma and I just happened to be walking up the stairs as my mom said to my grandma in a low enough voice that if you weren’t paying attention you wouldn’t hear, “Pam, there’s a possibility and if we get the opportunity we’re going to take it. Columbia seems like a great place.” Hearing those words made my heart skip a beat. Growing up we had moved a lot. From different states, to just different houses, and countless numbers of school districts. We had been living in Billings’ Montana for almost eight years though. I had so many close friends that I basically grew up with and now I didn’t know if I’d get to continue living with them.

There was always a chance that we could move. With my dad managing a restaurant, we never knew when there would be an opening for a job. This time was different though, I could tell. I ran back down the stairs and quickly called my best friend Tess.

Tess will know what to say I told myself. When she answered the phone she was thinking this phone call was going to be a normal one. I could tell she wasn’t prepared for what I was about to tell her.

After sharing the information I just found out, there was a long pause. Honestly, she didn’t believe me. “You’re not serious,” she would say. But it was, and now neither of us knew what to say.

It had been a couple weeks, and my parents hadn’t mentioned a single world about it. Tess and I both started to hope maybe I heard the conversation wrong, and then February came around. “Girls, dinner time,” my mom yelled for my sisters and me. As we sat down to eat, my dad started speaking in his serious voice. “Girls, I’m going out of town in a few weeks.” My stomach dropped. “What for?” one of my sisters asked. I started to get nervous and anxious really quick. That’s when they told us about the new job opportunity. “There is a job opening for the Texas Roadhouse in Missouri. It’s in Columbia where grandma and grandpa Socha’ live. Nothing is for sure yet, but they are going to tell me while I’m out there.” My eyes started to swell up with tears and my throat was so choked up that I couldn’t swallow, let alone say anything to this.

Am I the only one here that’s upset about this, I was thinking.

The next two weeks went by so slow. I was just glad that I was sick those two weeks and didn’t have to face my friends knowing this possibility. That was going to be the hardest. The week my dad came back was the worst I can remember. And sure enough he told us that the Socha’ family was moving to Columbia, Missouri.

“Here we go,” I told myself as I got into school the next day. It’s time to tell everyone that I’m leaving. The amount of tears that day was just astonishing, and yet again everybody thought I was joking.

I have six months. We’re leaving August eighteenth. Exactly eight days before my birthday. Great. Those six months went by in a flash, and as the week winded down more tears came and went. Finally, on the last day everyone was together at our house to say goodbye. It took two hours of goodbyes until we could finally leave. Goodbye Billings, hello Columbia.

My first weeks were awful and sad but now I’m used to it and love it here. I miss all of my friends but we keep in touch still and I’ve made new friends. I can say now that I’m glad I moved or I wouldn’t have met some of the greatest people I know.