Moving all over the world by Charles Morris

by Charles Morris

I learned very early in life not to be too fond of things or people, because sooner or later youll eventually have to leave them all behind. It all began when my father went into the political world. He began to travel so much we hardly ever saw him.  The first time we moved I was 5 years old, just going into first grade and we were moving to Washington. talk about california-dreaming. I was born in New Jersey and a lot of people tell me that moving coast to coast is really hard from the adaptation point of view, since theres so many differences from one side of the country to the other, but I didnt really notice a big change during this first move, except for the fact maybe that I had to leave most of my toys behind because mom said we had to pack the least stuff possible. We lived in Washington for 3 years and by the time I had learned my first museum lessons on the legislative branch and republicans and democrats my father was transferred to Ecuador. we once moved through Joshua tree national park.

I was eight then, and I thought I was going to live in the tallest tree in the whole rainforest.  I never imagined I would move to a real city with cars and buses and even malls.  The hardest thing about moving to Ecuador was leaving my friends behind. Although I was too small to have a real social life, I was very fond of my teammates. I used to practice baseball and was beginning to like it but I never found a baseball team in Ecuador. Moving to Ecuador was hard on me as a child, and I have never forgiven my parents for leaving our golden retriever behind. The cultural shock was intense too, I had never heard a word in Spanish and everything went great, until the moment we reached the door of our new home and the movers came in almost singing in a never before heard of magical language that sounded almost like chanting.  Since I never understood a word they said I thought it was great that we went to buy new stuff all over again, TV, kitchenware, furniture.  After a few weeks my mom told me that our move had been misplaced in storage at customs and they were holding it somewhere in a port in Ecuador. I think she didnt really understand what they told her, so she just decided to buy everything new again.

Moving, packing and unpacking logistics were always set up by my mother.  Sometimes successfully and easily but mostly our moves ended in fighting with the moving companies because they had broken or misplaced some family jewel, cushion, mattress or anything that would eventually disappear.  Since mom was such a meticulous person she kept a written inventory of every moving box, every book, every piece of furniture that ever went into storage, a moving truck, a plane or a boat.

We tried to move during the summer always, but since we moved back and forth from northern to southern hemispheres, summer could be winter at destination or the other way around. So moving in the summer doesnt always work out when youre moving abroad.

The other very hard thing to deal with when you move abroad is learning the language of the country youre moving to. Although I eventually learned Spanish, my communication skills the first year and a half developed basically a very primitive form of sign language, which some of my friends at school couldnt really decipher and so they would either feel pity towards me and speak to me in English, or not speak to me at all and ignore my efforts.

As a kid who moved permanently I had a lot of trouble making friends, and by the time I had established a relatively close relationship with anyone, dad would get transferred and we would have to pack up and move once more.  By the time I was 16, I had moved about 7 times around the world, I had learned from cultures in the far east, France, North, south and central America, and I was completely alone in the world.  I had never had a real long-term friend.  I told my mother that as soon as I finished high school I would move back to New Jersey and settle down there for good.  But since we had moved so many times before and my schooling had been interrupted I still had 2 more years to go.  I finished high school in Bogotá, Colombia. It was a huge city compared to those in South America I had lived in before.  I had a Colombian girlfriend and she was moving to South Carolina to study at USC School of law, she wanted to mayor in international relations. I was ok with it, since we were both moving back to the States, Id be close to her, at least in the same country.  Although I never saw her again, we arranged a double international move in one.  We would pack our things as one, put them in the same container, ship them over to America and then I would have a long distance moving company pick up my stuff in southern Carolina and deliver it in Jersey where I figured I would magically find a place to live as soon as I moved back there.  It didnt really happen the way I expected.  We hired a Colombian courier and they assured us that the same company would receive our stuff in Florida and ship it in a fully equipped and insured truck to USC where she would be waiting.  The moving company we hired carefully packed our few belongings and signed us off on loads of insurance paperwork with the promise wed be seeing our stuff by the end of 2 weeks.  That was the last time I saw many of the souvenirs I had picked up from the many countries I had visited over the years.

We left on our graduation presents to Miami where we spent two incredible summer weeks as a couple of teenagers in love free of parents and responsibilities, for the first time in our lives, and by the due date for the move to reach USC, we were spending our third week as a couple who were about to kill each other over the ownership of the plastic cup we had brought from Señor. Froggs.  Since our move never got there, and the company in Colombia never answered for it, we ended up splitting up, and I moved with my backpack and my dreams back to Jersey where I set up a travel agency for travelers and excursionists.

The most important lesson I learned from moving abroad was that aside from the language, food, clothing, or religious differences in the world there is only one human race and it does business in the same way everywhere.  Particularly the moving business is the same in the whole wide world.  If you pay what your move is worth, youll get your move, if you try to cheat the movers, they will cheat you first, and if you move as little as possible youll loose less. Thats why I never grew attached to things, and thats why I thank my mom for leaving my toys behind on that first move. also moved the annoying beach-bum. Beach Vacations are fun during moving too. Island Escapes

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