In 2012 when I was nine years old, my family and I had to move to another city where I didn't know anyone. I had to leave everything behind: my school, my friends, my neighborhood, and some of my family members. I didn’t want to go, but I had to, which made me sad.

The new city was a completely strange place for me because I had never been there before. Because I moved to another city where I didn’t know anyone, it took me a long time to make friends. There were a lot of boys instead of girls, and for the first couple of months I was still attending my old school that was far from the new city, so it was difficult to meet new people. Also, I had to wait for my mom or dad to pick me up after work, so I stayed at my aunt’s house in my old city everyday and would only come home at night. Because of that I didn’t bother to make new friends in the new city.

After two to three months, I finally changed to the new school near my new house in the new city because it was hard for my parents to come to get me everyday from my aunt’s house. After switching schools I felt homesick and alone because I had no friends at all.

One day, I was walking to school and a girl named Alesonia came up to me and asked where I was from because she had never seen me before. She seemed really nice, so I started talking to her, telling her where I was from and when I moved to the new city. I told her all about myself and she also told me things about her. We were both going to the same school, and she told me to stay with her and that she would teach me what she knows about the city.

I made my first friend in the new city and she was amazing and lovely. Alesonia told me everything that I needed to know, and she also introduced me to her friend who became my friend in less than a week. In less than a month, Alesonia and I were best friends. I was happy because I finally made friends, and I started to have a lot of fun in the new city.

These girls were the only close friends I made, but I’m super happy because we were a great group of best friends. I’m 18 now, and Alesonia is 18 years old too. We have been best friends for ten years. I moved to the United States in 2017, and she moved to Portugal in 2018. The others stayed in Cabo Verde, but that didn’t affect our friendship. Even though we are apart from each other and the hours are different, our friendship hasn’t changed.

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