Breana Daniel-Schnobrich: Moving from CA to PA has been an adjustment

By Breana Daniel-Schnobrich
Staff Photographer 

Hi, I am Breana and I was born in California. I lived in San Francisco for awhile, then I moved to L.A. I lived there for about nine years, and just last year my dad told my brother and me that we were moving to Pennsylvania.

I was very sad and angry. California was my whole life. I had never moved out of California before, and I guess I was scared, too. I told all of my friends and they ended up throwing me a surprise party, which was really fun. 
  
My brother had been going to boarding school since 9th grade in Santa Barbara, CA, so my dad let him stay. Soon, we had to start packing up all our belongings and we would be on our way. When the moving trucks came and emptied the house, I was so sad and didn't want to leave. It was summertime when we were moving, so my brother came with us up to PA. After our flight, we got to our new house, which was a rental, and we ate dinner. I then went straight to bed.

That summer seemed very long and boring, because the whole time we had to unpack. When we got settled in, my brother and I went to our friend Max's house in Haverford. He is a really good friend who we met in Cape Cod, MA, where we would vacation every summer.

We would only get to see him every summer for a week, but now we get to see him as much as we want. Over that summer, my parents were looking to buy a house that we could live in. It took them a very long time, but we finally found one. The house was across the street from Max's, which made me extremely happy.  

When school started, I was at Harriton High School in Lower Merion School District. I loved Harriton because it was so big, and when I was in CA I was going to a small private school, so being in a really big school with lots more people seemed really fun. 

Toward the middle of the year, it became difficult academically and I was falling behind. I would ask teachers for help, but there were so many other kids, they couldn't help me. So I told my dad that I wanted to go to a different school. He thought that it might be a good idea to check out new schools, so he started looking. 

When he found Woodlynde, he thought it looked great. When we got the chance, we went to see it a few months ago and I shadowed two Upper School students, who were really friendly. I liked it a lot and wanted to go to Woodlynde as soon as possible.

When I heard I got accepted, I was so excited and my dad ordered my school uniform. On my first day just before winter break, I was very nervous but also excited.

So far I love Woodlynde. People here are so nice and they make me feel very welcome. I feel more confident thanks to the teachers' support. Lacrosse season is starting and I can't wait to try it for the first time. My brother is a very good lacrosse player and ever since he started playing, I've wanted to try it out. I will be going to a lax store with a friend and we're going to choose our sticks, which should be really fun.
 
When I started at Woodlynde, I heard about the Informer and wanted to try it out. When I heard I could take pictures for the Informer, I was very excited and now I want to start taking pictures even outside of school and not just for the Informer. So I asked my dad and I might get a camera.

I am very happy that I found out about Woodlynde. I like PA very much and I'm even getting used to the cold weather.