I was born in Ohio and lived there till I was ten. My life was pretty ordinary until then - until my family packed up our belongings and moved to Almaty, Kazakhstan. I still remember waking up for the first time in my bed thinking, "Where am I?" Then the realization, "Oh right. Kazakhstan, part of the former Soviet Union." My family traveled around Kazakhstan and Central Asia when we lived there, and after two years we moved again.
The second country I lived in outside of the U.S. is the Republic of Georgia. This country has not only touched me with it's beauty, but I will also always remember the amazing culture and kind people. I went to school in the capital Tbilisi for four years and made great friends from all over the world, and experienced things that many of my friends back in the U.S. may never experience.
In August 2008, if you pay attention to the news, you would know that there was a "war" between Georgia and Russia because of a dispute over land.
That month my family and I still went returned to Georgia because we could not even contemplate the thought of continuing our lives in the U.S. Many of our family members and friends thought we were crazy, but we were just living our lives despite all of the bad things that have or could have happened.
After the dispute in 2008, our family lived in Georgia for two more short years. I finished my first two years of high school there, which was not hard compared to what I would be presented with in the future.
Half way through my sophomore year my family decided that we would move to Shenzhen, China; in June 2010, I encountered the hardest thing I ever did in life, and that was leaving Georgia.
Today, I am a senior and have lived in Shenzhen for about a year and a half. Obviously, I'm enjoying my time; considering I get to travel a lot of the world in the far east. I have awesome friends here too, and I'm going to have to leave them after graduation, but I know that we'll always remember each other, stay in touch, and maybe see each other again in the future.
I recently got accepted to the Farmer School of Business at Miami University, my top pick, and am very excited to move to Oxford, Ohio next August. Although I've experienced so much overseas, I know that I will still make the best of my life in my home state.