In late October in the fourth grade, I sat in the back of my dads Honda Pilot on the way back from my first experience at my new school. I was to start school tomorrow. I was nervous, the big school and unfamiliar faces gave me a sickening feeling. I held a stack of lined papers filled with letters by my future classmates, welcoming me to the classroom. I flipped through the notes, and come across one that caught my eye. It was a two sentenced “paragraph” that had letters four lines long, and was the basic most generic welcoming sentence I had ever read. I smirked and thought “I couldn’t wait to meet this idiot!” As stupid as the letter was, I admired it. For some reason, I could just tell that the kid who gave me this was going to end up being an important person in my life that year, whether it was for the good or for the bad. I stared out the window at the passing cars, wondering what my friends in Lake Orion were up to right now, and how much fun they were having without me. What took 15 minutes felt like hours, but we finally made it back to my empty house. I didn’t think I was ever going to adapt to this change. I honestly didn't think that I was going to make any friends in my new school. It was the first time in my life when I had ever  really felt  a combination of loneliness and anger, and I didn't like the emptiness it left inside of me.

  I went upstairs and sat on my matress, and prepared for the day ahead. It was like  on my first day in kindergarden, When I was just a shy kid walking into a school for the first time. I didn’t knowing anyone or anything about this strange place. I missed my brothers, and hoped that they were not having too much fun without me.  I was lonely then, but that day did not compare to the loneliness that I felt as I drove home that day. But everything ended up working out for me as small shy kindergartener. I didn't realize it at the time but I had come to accept the change of starting school, and if I had, the move may have not been as hard at it was then.
As tough as it was, the next day I showed up in school with my new red backpack in my Detroit Red wings shirt, and walked into my classroom and stared at my classmates. No one seemed to notice me, so I stumbled down to my new desk and sat quietly there until the teacher introduced me to the class. A few kids said hi to me, but most of the kids just ignored me. Later we went to lunch and I continued to be ignored, sitting by myself and did nothing at recess. It was miserable. Being alone and miserable made me miss my family and my friends. The thought of doing this everyday left an empty feeling inside me. I remember thinking; “Why doesn’t anyone want to talk to me?” I went and sat crossed legged on a bench near the football field, and waited.  Finally an endless feeling recess ended and we lined up to go inside. I stood at the end of the line, and a kid tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around to see a tall kid with a Buffalo Sabres sweatshirts with long black hair. He introduced himself to me, his name was Tucker and we talked about clarkston and why I was going to like it here on our walk back to the classroom.

“Your are going to love clarkston!”

He told me as we entered the classroom. He was a very friendly kid, he made lots of jokes in an attempt to  make me feel more welcomed on my first day. The teacher started class and our conversation ended. It was the first friendly gesture that anyone had attempted to make with me, and it made recess feel a little more meaningful that day, and the first sign of hope that my loneliness would end.
I didn’t talk to Tucker or anyone else the rest of the school day, that was, until the bus ride home. Again, I sat silent for another half an hour on the bus, staring out the window at the passing cars just as I had done a day ago. Once again I felt a sudden tap on the shoulder, and turned around to find Tucker sitting in the seat behind me, he leaned over the seat with his arms folded, leaving an imprint on the leather seat.

“Hey where do you live Nick?”

I turned and pointed

“Right there”

I pointed out the window at my house at the bottom of the hill.

“No way! I live right there!”

he said and pointed to the house a few doors down from mine.

“Hey your a Red Wings fan!”

he said, looking at my shirt.

“I am a big Hockey fan, but I like the sabres and the wings.”

The bus rolled to a stop, and we said bye and I walked back to my house.
From that moment forward I never felt alone in my house again, it is amazing at what the feeling of a friend can do to a person. Tucker ended up becoming my best friend, and still is to this day. Later that month, I learned that the Tucker was the kid who wrote that pathetic “welcome” letter that I had read on my first day in Clarkston. When I first read that letter, I could tell something was special about it, it was the first communication of a friend that has helped me through school in my early days of the fourth grade, and someone who would continue to help me throughout the rest of my high school days. I know realize through this move that change is not always a bad thing. If I had never been subjected to the change from Lake Orion to Clarkston, I would have never became friends with Tucker or anyone other friends that I have made up to this day. The move was hard at first and accepting it took some time. I was not happy to have this major change in my life, but looking back the move wasn’t that bad. Today I realize that the world is always changing. In my life I have grown distant to some friends while closer to others, my family is growing older and traditions have changed. In a few years I will leave for college, and  this will be a major changed for me and my family. As hard as it is, people move on and accept it, no matter how much it affects them. I have grown to be more accepting towards changes that occur in my life, no matter how awful they can be at first, I know I can get through it because I have before.