I’m what you would call a military brat. My entire life, I’ve been moving somewhere new almost every two years. When I meet people and they ask me where I’m from, I’ve always had to think about it for a second. After that I usually list off where I’ve been living the past few months. It really depends. Do they mean where was I born? Or where I spent the most years in my life? Or where I am currently living? Because I have a different answer for each of those questions.

Where am I from? Heck if I know. I just go with the flow. And that’s taken me from England, to Oklahoma, to D.C., to Hawaii, to New Mexico, to South Korea, to Virginia, to Georgia and now, somehow I’ve made my way here, to Champaign, Ill.

I know my life hasn’t been the most usual way to grow up. I’ve lived a life a lot of people will never get to live. I’ve driven across America from Virginia to California. I’ve been to the Grand Canyon and the Hoover Dam. I’ve hiked on a volcano in Hawaii and went sand sledding in New Mexico. I ate kimchi in South Korea and peach flavored ice cream in a peach factory in Georgia, just to name a few.

It sounds like the most adventurous life of its kind, almost like I went on vacations every year during Christmas or something. But my family and I never went on any actual trips; we considered moving to be our vacations. The time spent in between houses was our own adventure. And it never got old.

I have more good memories than any picture album could possibly encompass. I’ve met some of the most interesting people, including Miss America 2001, who also happened to be my brother’s middle school basketball coach. How cool is that?

But I also have to admit, in the back of my mind, I’ve always wondered what it would’ve been like to live somewhere for more than three years, to have a hometown, to know your friends from kindergarten until your senior year in high school and to go on an All-American vacation to Disney World. I have never known what that is like. It seems so quaint, just like in the movies. And I don’t mean that disrespectfully at all. I wish I could say I’m still best friends with someone from kindergarten, but I’ve moved so many times after that, I can barely remember them.

Here at college, I’ve met a lot of people whose best friends that they’ve known their entire lives are living down the hall from them. I’m a tad jealous of that. My high school best friends are all over the place, and they aren’t anywhere near Illinois. But I guess that’s part of what’s made me go out, do new things and meet new people. And now I have best friends here, one who even lives across the hall from me.

I wouldn’t trade my nomadic lifestyle for anything. I’ve loved every second of it. It was definitely hard being “the new girl” so often, introducing myself year after year after year. In the end though, I’ve come to meet so many more people than I could ever imagine.

But now that I’m starting to think about what I want to do in my life and where I want to go, I keep coming back to these two lifestyles; it’s almost an ultimatum. Do I want to eventually settle down and live in one place for more than a few years (which is almost unfathomable compared to my life now), or do I want to keep moving?

Going from place to place is the only lifestyle I’ve ever really known, and I get antsy every two years, ready to pack up and take on a new town. I want an adventure, but I want a hometown, too.

I have no idea what I’m going to do. Maybe that’s what these four years at college are for: finding out where you’re going.

One of my best friends, my older brother, has it all figured out. He’s going to Florida next year as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Air Force, following close to my dad’s footsteps.

Now, it’s my turn to figure it all out, and I can’t wait!

Annie is a freshman in broadcast journalism and absolutely has to visit Machu Picchu, Peru, someday.