My Story

Chapter 3.

That day, my world came crashing down. I can't tell you how much I cried. It was so heartbreaking to tell Manasi and Vova the news because I loved both of them and couldn't bear the thought of leaving them. Graduation was the last day of school and the last day I would step foot in that school. It was a beautiful ceremony. Girls wore pretty dressed, the guys all dressed up, the school was full of decorations and we sang a song and received a certificate. We would be going to the "big kids' school". Well, I wasn't. The last thing I remember about that day was hugging my best friends tightly. I wondered when the next time would be that I would see them again. Would it be soon? Would we stay in contact and talk/ write to each other every day like we promised each other? I couldn't answer these questions back then, but now I know. That was the start of an ending friendship. Although we talked for some time and tried to call each other at least once a week, it was hard to maintain the close friendship we had back then. It was painful for me to hear them talking about the fun stuff that was going on in their lives, the new friends they had made, and just anything that had to do with Sweden was painful. I missed it there. A lot. I promised myself that I would hate Germany forever. I was never going to adapt, and I wouldn't want anything to do with this place and with the people living in Germany. Manasi and I wrote letters to each other now and then and I loved receiving them. It was like a painkiller. My German school sucked. Like a lot. My German was terrible. Even though my mom had taught me and my sisters German when we were little, I was not prepared for this to come. I didn't understand anything. Well, not literally, but it undoubtedly felt like it. I tried making friends, but for some reason, my classmates refused to have anything to do with me. I was a stranger among many Germans. I felt like a stranger too. I hated this new life. After a couple of months, I started talking to a girl named Emilie. She was nice to me, she knew how to draw, and most importantly, she was patient enough to listen to me talking with my bad German pronunciation and helped me with my homework. I thought I was finally getting the hang of it and decided to try opening up to this new chapter. That was until I overheard Emilie talking about me to other girls behind my back. She said that she was only friends with me because she took pity on me. I felt like someone had stabbed me with a knife. I didn't think it was going to hurt that much. She apologized to me afterward and said that she did enjoy spending time with me, but I didn't know what to believe. I was already heartbroken, she had just broken another piece of it. I didn't think my heart was ever going to heal from it. I guess "time heals all wounds", but how long would it take? Finally, I got good news from my parents. They saw how much my sister and I were struggling with our new school and our family situation was also complicated, so they said we were going to move to another city. I was so relieved and happy about this. Some days later, we visited this new school in a small city called Heidenheim.