I have finally settled into my new home and ready once again to start where I left off a long time ago.

After having moved to the other side of my hometown, Bradford and away from all that was familiar to me, friends, surroundings, school, I was in a completely alien environment.

Where I had lived was a large council housing estate called Holmewood and it was close to fields and woods so my friends and I had plenty of places to play and we would very often go down to the valley to jump over the stream that ran down the centre of it, or down to the woods playing soldiers and other such games. These for me were good times and I greatly enjoyed my childhood there with my family, my friends and school. At school I learnt quickly and easily and I was always in the top band for every subject.

The move however changed all this. No longer were my friends a five minute walk away, school a ten minute walk away, close to the fields and woods that I so loved playing in. Now my friends and school seemed to be a lifetime away and the only fields in a park. I had gone from living on the edge of the countryside to a scene from Coronation Street with row upon row of Victorian terraced housing clumped closely together so that the workforce necessary to run the mills weren’t very far away from them and they became a prisoner in their own locality effectively.

The move had been out of necessity and need not choice. My mum did her best but my dad liked to drink and although he had decent jobs from time to time, quite often he lost them through turning up late or drunk and being absent. This lead to us having the gas and electric disconnected and we ended up living on the edge of poverty. Although I never felt that I went without they were times through shame and embarrassment that I felt unable to bring any of my friends home.

The opportunity for a new start came in the form of a caretakers position at a funeral directors with free accommodation included. It was too good an opportunity for my parents to miss so off we went to the other side of Bradford and away from all that was familiar to me, that meant so much to me, places that held so many memories for me. I was leaving behind all my friends that meant so much to me, my support network. My school where I was doing so well, everything that meant so much to me to start a new life in a new area with people and surroundings that meant nothing to me, nobody to turn to in times of need, school so far away.

This was indeed a time of great change for me, of immense upheaval both physically and more so mentally. How did I cope? How did it change me? That’s for next time.