Changing Schools
Changing schools is possibly the hardest part of a relocation for a teenager. How to avoid the blues of a school change brought to you by people who have done it!
Changing schools can be considered to be a wonderful thing but also an intensely annoying time. That is where I ("I" as in an expat kid who has relocated several times around the world) comes in.
There are many ways to improve your life when changing schools, for instance, if at your old school you loathed a teacher or got some bad marks, or did not get on with your peers then look at the change as a new horizon.
In the new school you can start afresh, your new teachers won’t know what you are like (academically speaking, of course!) and that way you can work on getting on their good side.
Also if you were a bit of a loner, then arriving in a new school might give you the courage to challenge yourself... why not try to act a bit differently and then you might become popular (no promises!).
If you think of it this way, then the change may not seem so bad, after all.
A change in school gives you a chance for new subjects and to drop the ones you hate, depending on your grades, I know this because I recently started my GCSE’s and dropped History and Geography; and I picked a few better classes.
There is always a chance in a new school to try new things such as new sports. I tried rugby and AFL (Aussie Rules Football), these are fun sports and if you have a chance you should try them.
In a new place there are a lot of new boundaries to cross, such as learning to drive. Maybe you did not speak the host country's language in your previous school/country, but you can try to learn the one in your new location.
Once you have done things like this, the sky’s the limit, depending on your situation.
Keep your friendships
Chances are that you will leave some of your friends behind when you move. There are many ways in which your can stay in contact these days. The best and cheapest way for you to stay in contact with your friends is to use some kind of social network (email are a thing of the past but still works too), this means of course that wherever you go, you will need an internet connection or a mobile phone with internet accessl.
There are many options to set up free email accounts online (most common of which are: yahoo, outlook, google, but there are less known options like blubottle.com and various others).
Yahoo
- World reknown portal with all sorts of info and functionalities, like instant chat, free mail (250 MB free storage space), group creation etc. If you accidentaly leave your address alone for over 30 days you account will only become dormant; you can retrieve it free of charge.
website: www.yahoo.com
- This is also a very well known website (maybe even more so than yahoo), and it has all the features that Yahoo has, you can have up to 25 people talking to each other at the same time in a chat room (but only if the creator invites them). Although if you leave your account alone for over 30 days it will be deactivated (250 MB free storage space).
webite: www.hotmail.com - A directory of clubs and organisations in the United Kingdom, whose aims are to give people new to the area the opportunity to meet and develop friendships with others who live in the area.
Many of these groups have general meetings and interest groups which encourage members to learn about their new city, its culture, activities, lifestyle, and to develop friendships by sharing interests and hobbies with each other.
website: www.newcomersclub.com/uk.html - A directory of clubs and organisations in the United Kingdom, whose aims are to give people new to the area the opportunity to meet and develop friendships with others who live in the area.
Many of these groups have general meetings and interest groups which encourage members to learn about their new city, its culture, activities, lifestyle, and to develop friendships by sharing interests and hobbies with each other.
website: www.newcomersclub.com/uk.html
website: www.msn.com
Lifetime storage and many feature associated with it
- This is very simple, all you have to do is create an e-mail address and get your friends to create their own (if you don’t already have one). Then all you have to do is type out whatever is on your mind and they will receive it in a matter of milliseconds!
The more conventional ways to stay in contact such as snail mail and telephones, are usually more fulfilling but they are sometimes not very cost, or time, effective.
If you have an Internet connection on your computer then you should have an e-mail address, it will also allow you to take part in instant video-conversations that are offered free of charge by companies such as Skype and Google Hang Out and you can talk to your friends for longer and cheaper in retrospect.
Any account will leave a trail
How to make life easier?
If you are the sort of person who moves country every few years (or even less) then your life must seem pretty difficult! Yes?
There are a few ways to make this constant upheaval easier. If you think that moving to places such as North or South America would be hard because of the differences in culture you are wrong because in most of these places there are thousands of people ready to embrace a new culture. And, if you speak English and you have just moved to Paris, then you must think that the language barrier will be to hard to break (unless you already speak French), but then you are wrong again because there are many people who speak English and some other languages. The best possible thing to do when you get to a new country/city is start school so you can make friends and therefore you will be able to start doing other things and learning about your new area. Once you have friends, you should be able to do a lot more than you would be able to do without the knowledge that your friends can pass on to you. The next move that you will have to endure could actually be good, especially if it is to France because here you can learn to drive a moped at age 14 and therefore get around without asking your parent(s)/guardian to drive you. There are many benefits to moving countries, do a bit of research so that you can find the positive things first before you decide that your destination is not very nice.