Walter Frank

The majority of my childhood was pretty typical. Fortunately, I was able to enjoy many of life's true pleasures at a young age- a comfortable home, private schools, a supportive family- to name a few. I was well provided for and taken care of; but for the majority of my life, little set me apart from the standard suburban boy of Memphis, Tennessee. I had gone to the same school my entire life and my future high school was already chosen. Everything was relatively routine. However, that all would quickly change as I headed into middle school. The summer before my seventh grade my parents informed my brother, my sister, and I that we would be relocating to London, England for my dad's job for the next two years. As you imagine, this news hit me like a freight train. Everything in my young life had been so mapped out, how could my parents put us through something so different? So crazy? So random? Despite my resistance, we made the move. A new house, a new school, new cars, new friends... that's what was easy. What I could of never been prepared for was the new culture and world I found myself in. I went to school with children from all over the world at ACS Egham International School, I visited twelve countries in a two year span, I did things people squeeze into a ten day vacation at the end of their life's for two full years, and most importantly- I changed. I spent the first thirteen years of my life was just existing and fitting in. During those two years, I was forced to become my own person and to establish my own identity, and I have not looked back since.