So I live in Armagh, NI. My dad currently works in Belfast, NI, about an hour away. My brother is starting uni there in September. And my mum might be getting transferred there (she currently works in Dungannon, about 30 minutes in the other direction). So they have pretty much decided to move to Belfast. I can see their point of view on this.
Of course, this means I have to leave Armagh.
Technically, I hate Armagh. It's an extremely boring town with no shops and pretty much all my neighbours hate me. And I've only lived here for 5 years so it's not like I'm especially attached to it. But then there's school.
My family move around a lot so I'm at my 4th school. I'm really shy and have like a social phobia and get really insecure around people so I'm not great at making friends, but I've been at this school almost 4 years now and I've never had such wonderful friends. I also have a boyfriend who I'm absolutely crazy about. When I start new schools, because I'm so shy and quite different from a lot of people people tend to think I'm weird and I get bullied. This happened at this school, but I've really carved a name for myself here and people don't mess with me anymore since I got this new found self confidence. It's like if I move, I'll lose everything I've made for myself.
There is no way to get transport to Armagh from Belfast that early in the morning, so if I move to Belfast I'll have to move schools. Obviously I don't feel too great about it, so my parents decided that I could live with my granny and step-granda during the week and live in Belfast at the weekends so I can keep going to school. My granny is a really sweet lady, but I really don't get on with my stepgranda.
He's my granny's 2nd husband (the first, my real granda, drank himself to death when my mum was my age) and he's never really liked having my mum or us around. He especially doesn't seem to like me. I'm a vegetarian and I always go around to his house for Christmas dinner and he makes fun of me for not eating any turkey. Not just messing around, but really at me. And when I was 14 he called me fat, which I thought everyone should know not to call any teenage girl, especially not one as insecure as me. I really don't think I can live with him, and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't let me move in. But living away from my parents would give me more independence and I have the best of both worlds, staying with my friends and having weekends in Belfast, my favourite city in the world.
Belfast is pretty incredible. It's a world away from Armagh. There's so many nationalities and sub-cultures, shops and weird little areas to explore and whenever I visit it I feel much more at home than I do in Armagh. The schools in Belfast are kind of unusual. They tend to be a little more open-minded than others (aka mine) and more open to piercings and haircuts and whatnot. They have a reputation as being a place where you can get a really good education and the debating teams (I'm a debater) are vicious. They're also huge.
Since I've moved schools so many times already, I don't think of moving schools as particularly daunting and I know how to keep different groups of friends and all that. But could I really start a new school and make new friends and make a name for myself? I've had to do that so many times already I'm not sure I could take it again.
And my friends. I have the best friends and boyfriend I could ever wish for and I love them to death. If I moved schools I would miss them so much.
I don't really know what to do. I think I'll probably change schools. But the idea of telling my friends I have to move away is making me cry even just thinking about it. I really don't see how I could leave them.
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