So…where to even start? I’ve been wanting to blog about my moving experience for the longest time and I’m finally getting around to it. So i guess i’ll start here…for about a year I had plans of moving to Florida with my best friend, Sam. I wanted to visit before moving, so in March of this year me and her road tripped from North Carolina to Florida, about a 10 hour drive. The trip was nothing short of fun, and I’d love to go back, but while visiting I realized Florida wasn’t somewhere I could envision myself living…it was perfect for Sam, but it just didn’t feel quite right to me. Several months before, specifically in September 2015, I visited Washington for the first time to see my grandpa. That was the first vacation that I went on that I truly did not want to return home. For those two weeks I was completely engulfed in nature–mountains, forests, beaches, and of course Seattle, all within an hour of each other…I’ve never felt more at home, despite that being my first time visiting. So fast forward to the week after returning from Florida…I felt sorta lost, like i knew i didn’t want to move to Florida but I also knew I had to leave the city I was in. It felt like there was nothing for me there at all and that my life just wasn’t progressing like the way I wanted it to. So i began thinking… what if i moved in with my grandpa in Washington?? At the time it was just hopeful thinking, like a daydream..I never thought it would actually happen. However I talked to my grandpa and parents about it and to my surprise they weren’t completely against it. As time went on my plan became more realistic…until it didn’t…My grandpa’s health got really bad at one point and it didn’t seem like he was going to make it…all i could do at this point was wait and pray that he got better.. not only so that I could move out there but also because my grandpa is the coolest person ever and I didn’t want him leaving the earth any time soon. Anyways, time went on and his health started improving and we made plans to make the move happen. Beginning of July, my grandpa flew out to North Carolina and from there I said goodbye to all my friends and family and me and grandpa bobby drove across the country until we reached Washington. I could write a several page paper on the trip itself, but i wont. All i’ll say is that it was quite the experience… It took exactly a week and we stopped at several national parks and other fun things along the way.. however I was so ready to stop living out of my car and make it to Washington already. The trip and the first month were the hardest for me, there were far too many emotions to process, but once I got a job and started making friends is when things got a whole lot easier. I was very stressed though because my grandpa’s living situation was only temporary. He had to be out of his current apartment within a month of me moving there and I spent all my spare time looking for a new place for me and him to live, but we couldn’t find anything that we could both financially afford. I began to get really anxious because I didn’t want to have to move back. I started looking at places to live on my own, and found a place on Craigslist–it was a duplex and I would share the one side of the house with a roommate. I met with the landlord, he accepted my application, and I moved in within a week. I’m so beyond thankful that I found the place that I did, it’s not the most ideal but it’s 15 minutes from Seattle, close to my job, and all I need for this time in my life. Once i moved in to my new place is when everything started to change. I didn’t have to deal with the stress of having a place to live and I began feeling truly happy, and now here I am! Happier than ever and enjoying the journey, as cheesy as that sounds.