Have you ever moved from Kazakhstan to Texas to Minnesota and New Mexico, or New York to South Carolina and Connecticut? What about Virginia to Kansas to New York to Kentucky then Germany? Have you ever worn traditional German lederhosen or dirndls to celebrate Volksfest? Or woken up to the beautiful sunsets and picturesque mountain scenery in New Mexico?

Freshmen Maya Zheng, Olivia Vela Caroline Payant, and Dari Bumgarner are new students at Westborough High School who have enjoyed such experiences and opportunities over the last 15 years. From Asia to Europe to Western, Southern, and Eastern United States to Westborough, all of these students are filled with understanding, exposure, experience, and advice on what it takes to travel (inter)nationally as a student.

Zheng moved from New York to South Carolina to Connecticut before transitioning to Westborough in July of 2019. Despite getting lost a few times, Zheng described her move as going “very well” and emphasized how grateful she was to all the friends who were “really nice and talkative” and thankful for the “supportive and positive attitude” of her peers.

Zheng further explained that she was encouraged to join the volleyball team, art club, humane society, and leukemia and lymphoma club because “everyone is overly friendly and nice.”

Despite the warm welcome she received on arrival, Zheng shared that she struggled with integrating herself into new, pre-established friend groups and, as with all moving experiences, tirelessly integrate herself and adapt to new communities.

Vela is a freshman from Concord, Massachusetts. Concord to Westborough was her first move, but her participation in cross country and kind friend group prove that she was incredibly successful in her transition. Although Vela stresses that it wasn’t a breeze: she strived to open up and had to “put [herself] out there.”

Vela advises any other new students (or students in general) to not be afraid to go into things with an open mind, “be outgoing, don’t wait,” and, as cliche as it may sound, be themselves. Vela surmised that WHS has a wonderful community, expansive selection of classes and extracurricular activities, and ultimately “a lot out there” that anyone can be a part of if they just work to “find [their] place.”

When interviewing Payant, she had to take a deep breath before listing the numerous places she’s lived and didn’t even bother listing the countless international attractions she’s traveled to. Thanks to her dad’s engineering position in the military, Payant has lived in Virginia, Kansas, New York, Kentucky, Germany, and finally Westborough, Massahusetts.
Similar to Zhang and Vela, Payant was a bit lost on her first day and struggled to make new friends with a shy personality.

Payant’s impressions of WHS reflected Zheng’s and Vela’s: great teachers and education and unfortunately long stairways and short lunches.

In addition to keeping an open mind, Payant indicated the power of endurance: living in an apartment while waiting for a house and sleeping on an air mattress for over six months is no fun.

Bumgarner, a new student as of January 3, voiced similar thoughts on the perseverance needed when you spend three days in a car traveling cross country, or you join a school in the middle of the year. There is no doubt that moving is “scary,” and both Bumgarner’s and Payant’s experiences further confirmed that it takes an amazingly adaptable and courageous person to be a new student.

Bumgarner recently moved from Albuquerque, New Mexico for her dad’s job at USGS. Though she assured that it was no easy task moving to Westborough, it is not her first time: Bumgarner has moved from Kazakhstan to Austin, Texas at one and a half, Austin, Texas to San Antonio, Texas at eight, San Antonio, Texas to Minnesota at nine, Minnesota to New Mexico at eleven, and New Mexico to Massachusetts at fifteen.

Despite adjustments in the workload and curriculum from New Mexico to Massachusetts (which she noted was moving from the 49th to 1st ranked state in terms of education), Bumgarner is glad she is attending WHS.

Unlike Massachusetts weather, which is cold and home to mosquitos, Bumgarner commented that the WHS community welcome was warm and made her feel included. Bumgarner reassured that, as long as you are somewhat adaptable, wise, mature, and “nice to everyone,” moving can be a great opportunity to meet new people.

The worst aspect of moving for all four students was leaving old friends. Zheng stated that she is sometimes unable to support her friends from afar, and Bumgarner explained that, whether helpful or frustrating, some friendships are left unresolved when you move.

On the other hand, they all emphasized that the “fresh start,” “blank slate,” and opportunity to “reinvent” yourself with moving presented other benefits; they all grew and matured as individuals with each move.

Though their answers and lives vary, they all confirmed that they love living in Westborough and are not looking forward to moving anytime soon.