When I wrote my article Red Hair Is Not As Uncommon As You Think – Twenty of the most overused things in YA I could’ve included moving except that I have a manuscript about a girl who moves and I didn’t want my words to come back to haunt me. Actually, it wasn’t that so much as that moving is a universal theme and writers don’t choose it to be unique, they choose it because it speaks to so many people. As long as your main character doesn’t bite her lip until it bleeds, her parents aren’t writers, and the entire family next door doesn’t have red hair, you’re in business.

Since I’m moving, it got me thinking about it in regards to the books I read growing up. My parents moved all the time as kids, so they put an end to that by moving once when I was seven and they still live in that same house. We only moved six blocks so I didn’t even have to change grade schools. I longed to move. I wanted to be the new kid. I think I thought I could do it so much better than the kids in the books I read about who moved. I wouldn’t wear the wrong thing or say something stupid, and if I made a mistake, I’d explain I didn’t realize that I was sitting in the popular girl’s seat and she’d love me for my honesty. I’d be more desirable, cuter, funnier, and miraculously have a better wardrobe than I currently had too. The teachers would love me, I’d excel in math somehow, and I’d make a best friend who spoke a foreign language and soon I’d be fluent too. And just as I was ruling the school, my parents would break the news that we were moving again. My friends would cry, throw parties, give me going away gifts of stationery and fancy pens. The boy I liked would admit he was secretly in love with me and would wait for my return. We would write long, heartfelt letters for at least a month. And in my new school, I’d do it all over again, but I’d tell my new best friend, “You’re my best friend now, but my real, best-best friend is Julie at my old school.” and she’d understand because being second best friend was better than not being my friend at all.

It never turns out like that in the books though. Generally the main character is totally humiliated and wants to crawl under a rock. I’m sure it would’ve turned out beautifully for me if I’d only had the chance. Just like if I’d gone to camp for the whole summer, I would’ve fallen romantically in love with the counselor and he would’ve gently told me I was desirable, but too young to give him my virginity, just like in Little Darlin’s.

Of course the reality of the move now, as a grown up, is that you really shouldn’t move unless you can afford to hire people to do it for you while you sip mint juleps and browse through home decorating magazines.