Anyone Who Has Moved Away

To anyone who has moved out of town or out of state, I have to hand it to you; you are incredibly strong.

It’s never a comfortable thing, moving away. You are leaving friends and family and the support system you may have enjoyed through college or maybe even your whole life. You’re facing a new city, maybe a new state or country. You’ve analyzed the pros and cons of the move and in some way, the pros outweigh those cons.

So you move.

You pack up your meaningful possessions and haul them off to wherever it is you found work. Nashville, Orlando, New York City, or maybe even Los Angeles.

Your family probably helped you pack your car, gave you early morning hugs to send you off and fought off tears in the process.

It might be an adventure to you, but it’s loss to them.

You also fight off the (bad) feelings of leaving those you love, but are finally able to breathe once you are on your way and jamming to your favorite album. It’s not a permanent fix, but it would suffice for a time.

Then you drive.

You drive for a few hours, or maybe even several days. All the while rocking out to your favorite Fallout Boy songs from high school and hoping that we’re not really going down.

This move is going to be the START of something great, you just know it.

You arrive in that new city and get to work. You have long hours at your job, maybe hit the gym or join a soccer team in your free time. You eat, work, sleep, and pay rent on repeat, that is, when you remember to eat.

People ask you if you like your new city better than where you came from.

You like it, but it’s not home.

You become friends with your coworkers, after all, you see them more than you see anyone else. You’re basically BFFs right?

Until they leave the company.

Hey but that new hire will be your friend, right? The one you trained and now manage.

You start to think about your friends who stayed closer to home. Did they have it right? “Did I really leave everything I knew and loved for the hopes of the unknown, potential career advancement, and buckets of loneliness?”

Yes.

You made the decision, made the move, stuck with it and never stopped moving forward. Some temporary discomfort in exchange for cementing the building blocks of your future. Totally worth it, right?

Many people who haven’t experienced a big move like that don’t fully understand it. They might not understand the amount of sacrifice that goes into following a job in a new city. The personal cost involved with leaving behind relationships that you may have invested a lifetime in.

It’s a lifetime that you’ll never get back. In a world where money tends to be the center of attention, time is really our most valuable resource. Experiences are priceless, and all that time you spent at home, you’ll never forget it.

But you’ve forged this path, you’ve come this far. You’ve finally begun to make real friends, dig in some roots, and the thought of calling this place “home” doesn’t feel so far off anymore. You are content and excited for the future.

You are home.