Fake Item #1: Watch- Timing would have changed everything. If I was older than I would have never moved because my parents wouldn’t have wanted us to be older to learn the language.

Fake Item #2: Cigarette- If I was more familiar with the environment and the culture in France then I would have been more comfortable. Young kids in the sixth grade would smoke cigarettes and were already having sex and drinking, and I was not comfortable and used to this. Back home everyone was still playing sports outside and having sleepovers.

Real Item: Passport- This was the item that I remembered the most. I traveled all the way from Las Vegas to France. My passport was always present.

Memoir: In the sixth grade, my family and I packed up and moved to the South of France. Learning a language when you are younger is attainable, so they thought it was a good idea to move us when I was twelve. What I didn’t realize was that living somewhere is different than just visiting somewhere, which was all I was used to. I was shocked when my parents told me that I wasn’t going to an international school because I did not speak french. I was young with a lot of friends back home so I assumed it was going to be easy for me to make friends. I did not know the challenges I was going to be faced with like; being in a new environment, among a new language, and new friends. I cried to my mom about it but she reassured me that everything was going to be okay.