It begins here.

This story is one fraction of the puzzle that is called my life. Ever since I can remember myself, I have been on the move, pack up your bags and there we were going off to a new destination. As a family, we are well traveled, but that’s not the kind of jet-setting I am talking about. I was born in Yerevan, in Armenia, in 1992 – the year, when we still had a war going on, and have the basic needs such as water and electricity was a luxury that not everyone could afford. My grandfather had the opportunity to move his family to Moscow, Russia, when he received a professional project that he could not turn down.

There we were, a family of five, mainly all relatives from my parental side jumping on the first flight out to a new adventure that was unknown to all. My mother had to leave behind her family, her closest people and support system behind; taking a one-year old in her hands to a land of new experiences, all the while being barely a twenty-something young adult. With time, my mother has become the superhero in my eyes, and my best friend in my heart. This was the first life-changing decision my family took.

My family has grown to enjoy our little life in Moscow, a few years later, we welcomed my little brother into our lives. My father’s career was picking up and our little immigrant family has started to have opportunities that were lining up to explore the world. We would travel back home to Armenia at any chance we had, to see our family and to connect with our hometown. My parents took my brother and I on holidays with them as well, and we would explore the world as four musketeers.

As, we went through our lives, I started going to school in Moscow. The first four years or primary school flew by quickly, and yet the struggles of finding your place in the society have also begun quite rapidly. There was pressure on doing well at school, finding friend groups, and potentially, as we grew towards teenage years – finding first love interests. When I got to the age of twelve years, my school life has become a nightmare: endless homework until midnight, fighting with a teacher who would downgrade me on the basis of my origins, and not having my place with the classmates.I mean, life was very comfortable, but there was just something missing, and the feeling of being constantly out of space kept shadowing my each move. Then one day, another ordinary rainy day, my parents have asked me “Do you want to live and go to school abroad, you will be far away from your parents – and you will have to make new friends. What do you think?”

There was a lot at stake, or so I thought, and yet I have blindly agreed onto moving abroad – blissfully thinking that the grass is greener on the other side. I spoke barely any English, and definitely had zero knowledge of French – and yet was ready to dive into this new adventure, knowing that my parents would have my back, or did I?