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"Q: I just moved to Odessa, Texas from Kearney, Nebraska. Could you give me some tips on making new friends and adapting to a new town and place? -Vanessa Protzman, 13, Odessa, TX A: When you leap, don&amp;#039;t be scared that there&amp;#039;s going to be no ground there to land on. I always had a foundation wherever I moved--my family. I always felt secure because of what my parents instilled in me: The willingness to reach out to new people and know that I&amp;#039;m okay even if they don&amp;#039;t like me because my family will always love me. It&amp;#039;s hard to believe it before you do it, but every single time that I&amp;#039;ve moved I swear I&amp;#039;ve benefited. Every single time, something good has happened--you just have to have faith, and that confidence will help you seem like a person other people want to get to know. Q: I just graduated from high school and now my mom wants me to move to Florida and live with her. I&amp;#039;ve lived in Baltimore for years, met good people and even fell in love. My living situation here is stressful because I live with my uncle, aunt and their four kids, but as I said, I&amp;#039;m in love. Should I start my life over in Florida and live with my mom, or should I stay here and live my life as I&amp;#039;ve been doing? -Christina Taylor, 19, Baltimore, MD A: When you leap, don&amp;#039;t be scared that there&amp;#039;s going to be no ground there to land on. I always had a foundation wherever I moved--my family. I always felt secure because of what my parents instilled in me: The willingness to reach out to new people and know that I&amp;#039;m okay even if they don&amp;#039;t like me because my family will always love me. It&amp;#039;s hard to believe it before you do it, but every single time that I&amp;#039;ve moved I swear I&amp;#039;ve benefited. Every single time, something good has happened--you just have to have faith, and that confidence will help you seem like a person other people want to get to know. Q: My father is in the military. We moved to Europe and making friends here was easy because everyone is the son or daughter of someone in the military. This summer I&amp;#039;m going to Quebec City and am worried about making friends. Everyone has told me it will be all right, but I&amp;#039;m afraid I&amp;#039;ll be left out and unable to make friends at my new school. Why is it always so hard to make friends and fit in? Was it hard for you to make friends? -Sophie, 15, Schinveld, Netherlands A: You know, it&amp;#039;s kind of like the joke people say about the horse: If you don&amp;#039;t let it know you&amp;#039;re scared, it won&amp;#039;t think you&amp;#039;re scared. Meeting new people is the same way. When you walk up to anybody--and this is something I got from living in the South, in Charleston--just give them a warm, open smile, and remember that half the time they&amp;#039;re just as nervous to say hello to you first as you are! Q: I found out a week ago my best friend--and my boyfriend of two years--is moving from where I live in New Jersey, to Minnesota. He&amp;#039;s leaving next month. I know he&amp;#039;s upset and wants us to stay together and then go to college together when we both graduate in two years, but I&amp;#039;m afraid it won&amp;#039;t work out. I see him every day and I&amp;#039;m depressed thinking about him not being here with me. What can I do? -Ellen, 16, Summit, NJ A: I literally graduated from high school, went out to dinner that night, had a party with my friends--and then the next morning was on a plane to New York City. It was like, &amp;quot;Hi, goodbye!&amp;quot; And I had been with my boyfriend at the time for six years and known my friends just as long. It was the first time that I was in the same place for more than a couple years. But on another note, I kind of got restless by staying put. I didn&amp;#039;t know how someone could be in one place for so long, and I decided that I should always look forward to the next opportunity. I would say never be scared about the future because there are so many wonderful things out there that you haven&amp;#039;t begun to imagine yet. Sure, I was hurt that I had to leave my boyfriend so soon, but I also knew that this was a step that I just had to take. Q: My parents and my siblings are planning to move back to our home country this summer. I decided to stay here with my grandparents and other family members to finish my education. What should I do to keep my head up when I miss them? -Vanessa, 15, Union City, NJ A: I think it&amp;#039;s good to lean on your family to guide you through it because, don&amp;#039;t forget, they&amp;#039;re going through new situations without you as well. As you stay behind, you can be the link who tells stories about what&amp;#039;s going on. Everyone gets homesick for family and places, and sometimes you just can&amp;#039;t do anything about that. But if you&amp;#039;re feeling that way about your family, go ahead to cry it out--and don&amp;#039;t beat yourself up for feeling like that!  Definitely get on the phone to your parents as often as you need to and rehash the great times you and your family have had together. But then think of all the wonderful moments to come--if you had them once, you can definitely have them again! Q: I recently moved to a new town and am going to have to go to the rival of my old school. We hate them and they hate us. My parents don&amp;#039;t seem to understand. I have amazing friends and a fantastic boyfriend and really don&amp;#039;t want to go. How can I make my parents understand? -Taylor, 13, Greenfield Township, PA A: When I went to my first middle school in Charleston, South Carolina, called Divine Redeemer, it wasn&amp;#039;t the most popular school in the parochial league. They were pretty alienated by other schools.  Then, the next year, I moved to Blessed Sacrament--the top school in the area. I liked it there a lot, but I saw how the kids treated people at D.R., and I even caught myself making fun of them, the people I had just gone to school with the year before!  When I realized it, I thought, &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s so messed up. How could we do that?&amp;quot; I loved my friends at D.R.--they were gems and if anybody took a minute to get to know everybody at this school, they would have friends for life. So I ended up being the one who had to put myself in other people&amp;#039;s shoes, and show everyone else there how silly it was to judge other people like that. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.seventeen.com/life/friends-family/a45/vanessa-minnillo-moving-csp-0706/>