danakandicacm:

I was born in Queens, New York to parents who just moved to the states from Eastern Europe.  My parents were just starting their new lives here, working dead end jobs to pay the bills and support their new child (me).  My mom was finishing her engineering degree at a CUNY school and my dad worked at a fitness center, had his NYC cab license was a school bus driver, and was finishing his degree at Long Island University.

While my parents were working on catching up to speed with other 30 and 40 year old people in the US, I spent the majority of MY time at school and aftercares — up until 10pm sometimes waiting for my mom to get out of work to come pick me up.

I never stayed at the same elementary school. I was constantly moving to different apartments and different schools. Never creating a “real” or “true” set of friends — new people were constantly entering my life - my past was all just a blur. But what wasn’t a blur was where I lived and all the places I had moved to — and this is a map of everywhere I have lived so far. 

You may think this is no big deal, but if you think about it, some people have lived in the same house since they were born..or two different places. 21 years into my life, I have lived in seven different places. 

Moving around so much has made me who I am today — I’m constantly moving and on the go. I get nervous when I’m in one place for too long, and I like leaving a place after I spend enough time there. (reminds me a little bit of how Marry Poppins thought haha) and I think my past reflects who I am today. 

Because of the fact that I never had a set of true friends as I was younger — I became incredibly close with my parents. I was an only child, and my parents and I were like a pact. I’m incredibly proud of where my parents have come in life since they started a whole new life in the USA - what to them was a complete different world at one point. They are what we call “The American Dream.”