I lived with my best friend's family in high school after my parents moved out of state

My best friend and I (not pictured) lived together during my senior year of high school.

It helped me become a better adult.

Worawee Meepian/Getty Images Growing up, I moved every year between seventh and eleventh grade.

By senior year, I was over it.

When my parents moved again, I was able to live with my best friend and stay in my school.

The experience taught me the value of friendship and helped me learn to stand on my own as an adult.

By the time I was heading into my senior year of high school, I had been the new girl for five years in a row.

In the '90s, my parents worked hard and literally followed career opportunities so they could provide for us.

For me, though, that meant volatile teen years being jostled between multiple cities in the Midwest .

My junior year in St.

Louis had gone pretty well, though.

I had already survived puberty with forehead-to-chin acne and frizzy hair by tapping into my inner extrovert to make new friends .

I just wanted to settle into my last year at this high school, where I had a group and felt like I belonged.

I couldn't bear another migration, but it wasn't up to me.