There are many things in life we take advantage of. For a long time I had a very happy life and I never stopped to realize how lucky I was. When I moved from New Jersey to Arizona it seemed like my life was falling apart. This was about the same time my parents first started to fight. They thought the move would save there marriage but it ended up doing the exact opposite. Aside from moving across the country and saying goodbye to all of my friends my parents were fighting almost everyday. For a long time I was depressed because of everything going on until I finally realized I was just wasting my time. I think the whole experience made me grow and mature. It is much easier for me to handle things now and I can make the best of any situation. I believe I am the only person who can bring myself true happiness.
My parents first started fighting around my 15th birthday. I remember one of their fights being so bad that I had to walk to my friends house at 11:00 on a school night in 20 degree weather. I was always leaving house just to get away from everything. The fighting was constant and as a result my dad started traveling to Armenia a lot. He would be there for months at a time. My parents finally concluded that moving to Arizona would be a fresh start for them. They put the house up for sale right away and before I knew it I was saying my goodbyes. I did not want to move but I kept my usual positive attitude. There was a month left before school started and I spent it listening to my parents fighting. Since they could not resolve there issues my dad was still traveling a lot and my mom became very depressed because she realized her marriage was falling apart.
I remember the first day of school vividly. The school was huge and the people were not as friendly as I thought they would have been. There was about five or 600 people per grade. Coming from a small town in New Jersey where there was not more then 100 people per grade was a drastic change. I was very shy so I did not make friends easily. I did not give the school a chance and hated everything about it. As a result I was absent very often and my grades dropped. My sophomore and junior year I was close to loosing all of my credits because of attendance. I had to write letters the school board explaining why I was absent all the time and luckily they gave me my credits back. I slowly started to realize I was just wasting my time by complaining and not accepting the move or my parents not getting along.
Once I turned 17 I started to look at life very differently. I finally decided to look at the bright side of things. I came to the conclusion that I was never going to be happy at my new school because I came in with a negative attitude. My mom and I decided that online school might be the best way for me to go. It was the best decision I ever made. I started to get good grades again which motivated me to do better with my school work. My parents were still fighting but at this point my dad was rarely in Arizona. Within the next year they finally decided to get a divorce. It was not as hard as I thought it would have been. My mom slowly went back to her old self, my dad came around more often, and they still remained friends. Accepting their divorce was a very big step. I think the combination of that and finally being happy with school is what made me change for the better.
As hard as this part of my life was I do not regret it happening. I believe it made me who I am today. I have a much stronger personality and I can handle problems much better. If we never have bad experiences in life we would never mature into the adults we will one day become.