Isaac Newton’s first law of physics states that “An object that is in motion will stay in motion until it is acted upon by a greater force.”
In this way, my life has been like this for the past 24 years, moving as the wind blows from state to state as the winds of life have blown and shifted.
The first time I moved, it was January of 1999. My family and I were moving because my dad had been laid off from Arrowhead Mills in Texas and got a job working for American Ingredients, located in Kansas City, Kansas. We moved to Lawrence, Kansas, as a way to be in a smaller and less urban environment.
The move was long and trying. Our U-Haul truck broke down several times in Oklahoma. There was then a winter storm and my brother and I were sick.
By the time we got to Lawrence, all of us were just wanting to settle down for a good long while. Then, for a good eight and a half years we would remain there.
Over the years, we would move once, across town initially to get into a better school system.
My social circles shifted both at home and school as time went on. In 2000, I was friends with several kids in the neighborhood and some from my pre-school.
In a few years, these connections would shift as my friends both in the neighborhood and school would move away either to other schools or neighborhoods or they would move away to entirely different towns and states.
In 2001, my dad would be laid off from his job at American Ingredients. As a family, this is when we would come upon hard times.
There was always the sword of losing our house looming over our heads. We pinched pennies and made it through with the help of relatives and our parish.
To add salt to the wound, my maternal grandmother and my paternal grandfather would both have bouts of illness and both would pass away within two years.
This devastated both of my parents and put them under great strain.
The silver lining in all of this is that my dad had got a temp job with Pfizer in Kansas City, which then turned into a permanent job.
In 2006, Pfizer announced that it would close down its plant and expanding production in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Between trying to sell our house, my brother and I finishing our respective stages of education, (junior high school and primary school) and my dad moving to Indiana in order to begin his job at the plant.
In the summer of 2007, we sold our house in Lawrence and moved up to Terre Haute. It was an entirely fresh start for us as a family.
By the fall, the product, Exubera which had been the cause of the plant’s expansion, was a flop and once again our family was looking to move for another time.
By this time, I had accepted the fact that throughout life that I was probably going to have to move one way or another.
My dad would eventually get a job with Pfizer in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and we would have our house on the market for three years.
Ironically, I would stay in Terre Haute for the next six years, graduating high school and making personal friendships that have lasted to the present day.
On June 3, 2013, I would leave Terre Haute, heading northeast towards Michigan. As we left the city limits, “Leaving on a Jet Plane” was playing and I cried my eyes out.
It felt so unreal that I was leaving this place where I had established so many relationships.
In August of 2013, I would move up to Big Rapids, Michigan to attend Ferris State University. Even though I would come down to Kalamazoo for Christmas and summer breaks, it never felt like it was my home.
In August of 2015, I joined the Mercedarians a Catholic religious order and moved Philadelphia.
Philly has been my home base for almost five years now except for the novitiate, period of religious training when I lived in Mexico for a year.
Who knows where I’ll end up in the future?
