Pride Eva Libby

There are very few things that I genuinely take pride in and one of those things is me

successfully moving away from my family and being an independent student, being able to

successfully finish high school without my parents. It was and still is an experience like none

other and it’s taught me more than any person could teach me. Now I live two states away from

my mom and and hour away from my birth dad and will continue to from this moment forward,

live in my own way.

The summer of 2018 my mom decided to move me and my brothers out to Utah so she

could be with her fiance (now husband) and so we could have a fresh start. My brother Evan and

I didn’t really want to in all honesty. Even though it was going to make our mom happy, we

wanted to stay and didn’t really mind if she wanted to leave without us. For starters, Merced is

mostly all we’ve known and secondly, we were all in the middle of crucial parts of our

education. I would be entering my final year of high school, Evan would be a sophomore, and

David would be in fifth grade.

Regardless of it not being the best timing, it just wasn’t all that appealing to up and leave

all of our friends and family to go somewhere we’ve only visited for two days before hand. All

in all the move happened and my mom, my two brothers, and I left to Vernal, Utah. I spent a

total of five months there and three of them were my “first semester” of my senior year. For

them it was “first trimester” and it honestly went by faster than I thought it would. Especially as I

was going through the process, it seemed like it would never end.

My mom knew from the start that I wanted to stay to finish my senior year with my

friends and to graduate from a school of people I’ve grown up with and endured literally almost
all of my life with. So I had been making a plan that would allow me to move back and finish out

the school year how I truly wanted since the start.

After having to take sophomore, junior, and senior classes that were all new requirements

for me to graduate, I passed all of the classes and left them behind as quickly as I could. I

attended as often as I needed and I stayed on top of things as if I was going to graduate from

Uintah. Just because I didn’t want to be there didn’t mean that I would let it effect my education

drastically.

My first visit back to California after moving away in July, was in November, to help

serve at a wedding. Visiting for that short week made me miss everyone and everything so much

more. I felt like I was at such a huge loss and like I was missing out on everything, and it’s

because I really was. I missed all of football season, all of color guard and band’s parade season,

water polo and so many other events I wanted to attend so badly with my friends.

Upon coming back and having several heated arguments/discussions, it was planned that

I would move back to Merced over Christmas break. Moving back would mean I would be

giving up my car and my family and I knew that regardless of this year, that I would be moving

away from them anyways for school, so this is all technically happening just a year ahead. I’ve

moved in with a family friend and I really don’t spend most of my time there anyways, I’m a

busy body and am constantly with someone or doing something.

I had a job and saved as much money as I could when I was in Utah and that has been

what’s keeping me afloat and allowing me to keep my independence. I’ve always done things on

my own but now it’s the real life aspect of it all since it’s actually happening. I’ve been happy

and prospering in ways that I wasn’t before. Of course I miss my mom and brothers, but I knew
this was going to happen sooner or later, and doing it now has just helped me learn that much

more and that much sooner. Overall I’m proud of myself for taking initiative of my life and my

happiness and having the support that I do to get me where I want to go.