Saying Yes To New Adventures

Hey, friends! I hope your day has been off to a great start! I wanted to use today’s blog post to share why I moved back to Ohio. I’ve been getting a lot of questions about it, so I decided to tell you all on here!

So, let’s start by back-tracking to one year ago. If you’ve followed along with the blog since then, you’ll remember that I moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for a new job last September. The opportunity presented itself and I took it.

Did I know anyone in Myrtle Beach? No — not one.

Was it scary moving 11-hours away from home? Yes, but I don’t regret it.

Although I wasn’t really sure how much I would like living at the beach, I decided to move anyway because I knew it was the right choice for me and my career. I still do think that as I sit here writing this post from back home in Ohio. 

So, why did I move to South Carolina in the first place?

I wanted to experience what it was like to figure out adulthood on my own. The thing is, you can’t learn to be an adult — you just have to do it by the circumstances that present themselves. From figuring out how to transfer a title and paying property taxes, to prepping for a hurricane on your own and making sure you’re ready to file a claim if something happens — adulthood is responsibility overload.

Despite the ups and downs that I experienced over the past year, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I wholeheartedly believe that the universe has a plan for all of us, and we can either choose to go along for the ride, or jump off and make our own path.

I’ve never wanted to be the kind of person who does everything people expect me to do. It’s just not who I am. I’ve always wanted to forge my own path that might not make any sense to other people, but makes sense to me — and that’s what matters the most when it’s all said and done.

Fast forward to about eight months into living in South Carolina — the initial shock of moving slowly started to wear off.  It was then that I began to question whether or not I could, or let me rephrase that, would stay in South Carolina long term. When I made the decision to move there, I wasn’t really thinking years into the future. I was taking the experience day by day.

In many ways, I feel like society puts this perception in our minds that in order to be successful in our careers, we have to move away from our hometown.

But, what if we don’t want to move? Does that mean we’ll never be successful?

This perception is something that I’ve struggled with for awhile, but never fully grasped an understanding of until now. It’s that feeling — the one that made me feel like in order for people to view me as being successful, I had to move somewhere totally new. But why?

This year, I learned how important it is to do things with myself in mind, instead of worrying about other people’s perceptions. I’m not going to lie — I do care what people think. But honestly, I’m not going to let that affect my decisions.

If you want to stay in your hometown and be close to family and friends after you graduate or get a full-time job, stay!

You can still see the world and be successful, even if your home base is your hometown — and that’s exactly what I intend on doing. I’m only in my early 20’s, so I still have a lot of life to live and I know the future is unknown, but Cleveland will always be home to me in some way.

Living in South Carolina was interesting, and different from anything I’d ever experienced, but it also wasn’t what I thought it was going to be, and that’s okay. 

So why did I move back to Ohio?

Because life happens and when it came down to it, I really didn’t like living in South Carolina and being so far away from the people I love. It’s as simple as that.

I know I don’t need to justify my decisions to anyone, but I felt that it was important to share this past year’s adventure so that others out there who aren’t in love with the city they moved to can know that it’s a-okay to walk away!

Do I regret moving to South Carolina? Not for a second.

I learned how to be self reliant in a place where I knew no one, and I’m really damn proud of myself for that! It definitely wasn’t an easy year, but I think that I needed to do it for me. 

So yes, I’m back in Cleveland, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

Get ready CLE — I’m here to stay.