Moving from Florida to Germany, By Axel Delgado, Age 12

I will never forget the day when my mother asked me if I wanted to move to Germany. I thought she was joking around, so I just started to laugh. But then she gave me that "I'm not joking" look.


That made me ask, "Mom, are you really serious?"

Then she said, “Yes.”

"Why do you want us to move, Mom?"

"Because it will be a great experience to go to another country. Don't you want to go there and be able to experience other cultures?"

At that time, my family was living in Florida and I really liked it there, so I did not want to move.

My mom then showed me many old towns and cool monuments and stuff like that on the computer. She also showed me theme parks and water parks. I had that "want to go / do not want to go" feeling. It was kind of hard to know how I was feeling. I still said no, because I was trying to decide. I went to bed that night with a thousand thoughts of moving and deciding whether or not to go to Germany. The thought was like a thousand bees buzzing inside my head.

I imagined myself walking in the streets of Germany all by myself looking at signs I could not read, and talking to people I could not understand. I also had nice thoughts about it. I thought about visiting places only people thought and dreamed of seeing. When I saw it that way, my mind opened up more. I thought it probably wouldn’t be that bad. I will have to lose some friends for whatever amount of time, but it will be interesting.

The next day, I woke up and saw a beautiful day ahead of me. I made a quick sprint to where my mother was getting ready for work.

"How is my insane little child today?" she asked me.

"I'm doing great", I said, loudly. "Mom, I have been thinking about Germany. I think I have a maybe.”

"That's good, honey. Anyway, if we do decide we want to, we have until December.”

After that, I slowly jogged over to my friend's house thinking, What will Germany look like? The weather? The people? Will there be the same type of cars? Will the language be hard to learn? All these questions would be answered in time.

When I arrived, I found my friends sword fighting in the front yard. The red and purple colors of their light sabers turned into a blur as they continued to fight.

"Hi Brandon and Daniel!" I yelled in great excitement.

"Hi Axel," they yelled back. They both were brothers. The one with the purple light saber was (at that time) nine-year-old Daniel and the one with the red light saber was (at that time) 12-year-old Brandon.

"I have something to tell you guys," I said.

"What?" they asked.

"I might be moving to Germany."

They, of course, said I was crazy so I just told them all the great things that my mom had told me.

"Wow, so they actually have a Lego Land?" asked Daniel.

"Germany has mountains?" asked Brandon.

As I arrived back to my house, I asked my mother how long we would stay if we went to Germany. She said it would be three years. I also asked my mom what job she would have. I found out that she would be a doctor for the Army. She would work there in the day and come off post at night to a house out in the local community. I thought that we would live on the base with the Americans, but we were going to live off base with the Germans. I was very excited by this to know that we were going to live in Germany.

When summer ended and school started, I told my friends and fellow pupils that I would maybe be moving to Germany. They at once all started to laugh their heads off. Then, when they saw what kind of face I was wearing, they all just backed up. Their eyes grew wide as if they were being pinched through the skin.

Soon, a few months later, after all the laughs, the byes, and the cries, which I treasured dearly, we departed. The ride on that plane was the longest ever ridden by me (literally and emotionally). There was some period of time when I hated living in Germany and everyone living in it. I was mad. I wanted go back to Florida to the hot, humid weather and not be in the cold, dry weather. I wanted to see my old friends again. I had no friends here. I thought that no one liked me.

Soon, little by little, I started forgetting my friends and Florida. I started getting used to the weather. I started to get used to being surrounded by military kids. I now see the world as a better, clearer world. All because of that “old” Axel sacrificing friends and everything he knew to come to Germany. That is how I see the world—through the eyes of this new "military-living-abroad" child.