The most important thing in my life was moving to Michigan. My mom and dad decided to move to Michigan because my family lived there and my mom and dad grew up and went to Michigan State there.



We went to our grandparents about 4 times a year. It is kind of funny to think that we passed Mattawan going to our grandparent's house without even knowing that some day we would live there.
It all started in the summer of 2007 when my dad found a job as a Project Engineer at Coca Cola in Paw Paw, Michigan.







My mom had heard that Mattawan had great schools. So we started our search for a home in that area. We drove up to Michigan and looked at houses. I felt at first that I didn't want to move because I had lived in Missouri since I was 5 years old and I had all my friends there.
We were at my grandma and grandpa's house when we found the house that we liked. It was 15 minutes away from my cousins, 1 hour away from my grandpa and grandma, and 4 hours away from my Papa and Nana. We drove back to Missouri and packed up our belongings. We filled the semi and a car to the roof. Then we said goodbye to our neighbors and started off on our journey back to Michigan. Our toys and belongings were all jammed in the back. I sat in the back while my brother sat in the front laughing at me because I was so crammed.

I said, 'It should be my turn to sit in the front,'
My mom said, 'You're right, next gas station Ryan will sit in the back,' and there was no more laughing from my brother.
We pulled in the driveway I ran into the house and slid on the carpet. I had a rug burn for a week. The semis showed up 1 day later with all of my family's belongings. My grandparents came over to help us unpack all of the boxes. There were boxes in every room.
The first couple nights we slept in sleeping bags until our beds were set up. Our neighbors came over to help us set up shelves in our garage.

I started to unpack the boxes in my room. My mom signed me up for the basketball camp because I really like basketball and it would be a good chance for me to meet the kids that I would go to 6th grade with.
I went to my first open house to meet my teachers. I got on team 6-2 I didn't know any of the teacher so I didn't care what teachers I got. Mr.Mills was very funny and he made everyone's first day a good one.
My first day of school going good. I live close to all of my relatives and I finally thought this could be a home for me.