Sunday, March 13, 2011

Somewhere New


Last week a friend posted on Facebook that she was having a moving sale. She was selling everything: her furniture, kitchen items, clothes and jewelry.

I asked her where she was going, thinking maybe she was headed back to the South where she was from or maybe to another state where she had a fabulous new job.

She told me she was moving to Ghana.

Ghana?

Yep, she said. Her goal is to get in the tourism industry.

Wow.

I wish I had the courage to just give up everything, move somewhere new and just start over.

There was a time in my early 20s that I did just that. After I graduated from Ohio State, I worked at a regional magazine in Columbus. A year later, I was bored out of mind and knew that I had to leave if I was going to be happy.

So I packed all my stuff and drove to Atlanta. I didn't have a job, but I had friends from high school and college who lived there.

I got to Atlanta on a Sunday. Monday morning I found my way to the corporate offices of Upscale magazine. I walked into the office without an appointment and introduced myself to the editor. After taking an editing test I was hired on the spot. I started the next day as an editorial assistant, making almost nothing, but at least it was something.

Three months later, I got a call to come work at a magazine in D.C. Again, I packed all my stuff and drove the 10 hours from Atlanta on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It was 1997. I've been in D.C. ever since.

Today I'm at a crossroads in my life. I'm ready to pack up and move again. I want to go somewhere else, do something different. I've been looking for a job for the past four years. I would like to live in a better environment. I don't have any kind of love life. I wish I could start all over somewhere new.

But I can't.

So, what happened to the fearlessness I had in my 20s?

Well first of all, I just can't, at my age, just up and leave without a plan: call it obligations or call it being an adult. Fifteen years ago I didn't own a home or have the life I have now. Sometimes, however, I wish I wasn't so responsible, so damn dependable.

But I am. I honor my commitments and stay the course.

According to Suze Orman, the housing market is not expected to get better until 2015. Will I be able to stay here for 4 more years without going crazy? I have to. Oprah always says, "you make your own happiness."

So that's what I have to do. I went back to school to get a better job. I'm hoping for change in my neighborhood and I'm optimistic that love is in my future.

What are your thoughts?
Have you ever thought about just packing everything up and starting all over some place new?
Why didn't you?
Would you move without a plan? Without a job?
Would you leave everything behind to pursue a lifelong dream?

Let me know your thoughts.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm in the same ship. I have children though, and that makes it a bit tougher... but I am hunting ways and places to move to, I'm going crazy in this town! I'm in the desert, and I need green!