Olivia Thompson

When I was eight my entire world changed.

I started as a young girl living in a small town in Illinois until the summer of 2002 when the news struck my family that we would be moving to Switzerland. I had never left the country before and I had only previously taken a plane once so I registered moving to a completely different continent as a horrifying experience. After spending seven years in Switzerland it became all that I knew and my new home. Living abroad opened my eyes to various kinds of people and experiences than I would have ever come into contact with stuck in Illinois. In 2009 when we found out that we would be moving back to Illinois I was ready to embrace the illusion of American High School that i had only been exposed to through movies and television shows. Following only a single year back in Illinois my parents informed me that we would once again be moving, this time to Hong Kong. I was not thrilled about this announcement because I was ready to live in the USA for the rest of my life, however I knew that with all of my previous moving I was prepared to adapt to anything. Living in Hong Kong for the past two years of my high school experience was one of the greatest thing that could have ever happened to me. By living abroad for half of my life and changing the perspective of my teachers often I have been able to open my mind to different view points, scenarios and ways of writing which I believe make me a better writer.