It is officially 2017 and in a way I’m sad to be saying goodbye to such an incredible year. In 2016, one of my resolutions for the year was to start saying ‘yes’ more often. I have always remained in this little comfort zone bubble, but I knew I needed to get out of it and quit letting anxiety get the best of me. When anyone asks to hang out or to go do something it’s sooo easy to say ‘no thank you’ and just sit around at home searching the internet….its more comfortable that way, for me at least. However, you never realize how much you’re missing out on until you actually say yes to whatever activity it is, and then see how much better you feel afterwards because you did something different. Even if it may not have been a great time and you would have rather been at home watching netflix, it’s never a bad thing to get out there. You can always learn something and grow as a person through whatever situation. 

An example of this… It was about a month or so ago and I had gotten off work and realized that i needed to do something other than sitting around at home, even though the only thing i felt like doing was laying in bed. I looked on my AllTrails app and found a beach park to go to. As I was walking along the beach, I crossed paths with this middle aged woman who was walking her dog. She started making conversation with me and with my introverted nature, my initial reaction was to say a couple words and then dip out, however, she invited me to walk with her a mile or so around the beach. I was going to politely say no thanks and walk back to my car, yet I had that thought in the back of my head to just say ‘yes’…and so that’s what i did. This lady and I walked for about an hour along the beach just talking about everything, and it was the most refreshing thing. She was telling me how she loved talking to strangers and just learning more about them, and her whole energy was just very inspiring to me. I remember driving home and just thinking, “Wow…I’m so happy I did that”.  It was a super simple thing, but it’s an experience I wouldn’t have had if I would’ve just stayed at home.

So…2017…my resolution for you is nothing but the same–personal growth and taking action. Goodbye 2016, its been too real.

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.