Series: 1) confrontation with the dark past

It's been a while since my last post...school has been quite hectic these days while I also had a difficulty coming up with an idea to share. However, this past week was a week filled with unexpected surprises that made me face my dreaded past; that seems to creep up on me more often as I have come to realize how small this world really is.

I am not sure if I shared this about me or not but I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and for two years of my middle school life (7-8 grade), my family moved to my Dad's hometown for the sake of MY education. Talk about loving parents right!? Now, I don't want to take forever explaining where this place is but if any of you have grown in the same community as one of your parents did (especially if it's a small community), you might understand my frustration, difficulties and such as I stepped into this community from a completely different world (Nagoya, Japan to be specific). The hometown my Dad grew up in is where my grandparents still live and was another reason why we moved there. My grandpa was a school teacher who taught all his kids (imagine THAT nightmare of having your DAD as your teacher...talk about embarrassing). Anyway, the majority of this community are also members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and most, if not all of the children then have grown up together not only through school but through church; meaning you would see the same people at least 6 days out of the 7 days of the week. It's also the kind of community where the nearest Walmart is in another city; meaning you'll most likely see at least one person you know every time you go shopping. It's the community that backs up their local high school 100% where the homecoming games are featured in the local paper's front page and engagements and deaths are also reported in the pages following. You get the picture? Now, imagine a 12 year old stepping into this world from one: another country with Asian culture, and two: coming from the city where there was far more than just a single stop light on main street. 

Needless to say, I didn't fit in..AT ALL.

With this said, over the next few posts, I decided I would share my experiences from this foreign place. It's funny because I did visit here fairly often growing up; every Summer my Dad and I would visit;  along with another state but until the visits became residency did I face the reality of the critical eyes of a tight community to an outsider.