Island living was always a dream of mine, ever since I first visited my dad’s family in Bermuda. I was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and lived there for two and a half years. We moved to Sacramento, California for my dad’s work, and my sister was born there. I lived in Sacramento for eleven years – until I was thirteen. Then we decided to move to Bermuda. There were two reasons for the move; to get citizenship in Bermuda you have to live there for at least five years before you are eighteen, and my dad was able to find a job there.
My dad grew up in Bermuda, although he was born in New Zealand which gives both my sister and I automatic NZ citizenship as well. So, yeah, I have triple-citizenship – Kiwi, American and Bermudian. My dad’s sister and step mother live in Bermuda, so this is the closest I’ve ever lived to my extended family since my mother’s side all live in Texas.
In case you don’t know where, or what, Bermuda is, it’s a teensy-weensy little island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It is 21 square miles in size. The size of it and the location makes it very hard to get supplies and goods shipped to it. This means produce that is not grown there is normally shipped by boat, making it either unripe or bruised. Everything else is extremely expensive and hard to get because of the availability of it.
And no, the Bermuda Triangle is not endangering my family. So far I’ve made it without being sucked into an infinite void of nothing and ending up on a supernatural island like the Lost characters. To help you understand, Bermuda is the top of the triangle, with the other corners being Miami, Florida and Puerto Rico. Guess what? The most abnormal thing that occurs here are hurricanes, albeit those are kind of worrying.
While shopping is not exactly easy, and hurricanes are always around the corner in the late summer, there are so many wonderful parts of Bermuda. First, the ocean is everywhere. The water is always a brilliant turquoise blue, and very warm in the summer. This is a very big improvement from California ocean. Another great thing about Bermuda is that every one is very friendly and close, so you will almost always see someone you know when you go out. Since the island is so small, it is also easy to get a spot in all kinds of activities. Since moving here I have gained many friends through various sports like dance, fencing and archery, as well as theater and acting camps.
So yeah, Bermuda is pretty cool. And it’s really fun in the summer, so come check it out some time! I promise you’ll have fun.
Maia, 15 yrs, Bermuda island