The first time I moved in my life was just up the road from our original home in South Weber. Not a big change. The second time I moved was when I moved for school up to Logan. That was a bit of a bigger change than the first. It was a new chapter in my life in which I gained my first real testimony of attending church on my own. I grew in a lot of ways from moving to Logan. No, I did not learn to cook, like I thought I would. But I did learn what made someone a good room mate, and what habits made people harder to live with. I learned how to depend on myself for things, and I learned that I could be an independant, happy person, away from my family. It prepared me in a lot of ways for what was to come with me moving to North Carolina.
My latest move was from Utah to Durham, North Carolina. It is an exciting adventure that I have looked forward to for the past 6 months and it is everything I though it would be, plus some things I did not expect. For example, I didn't realize how afraid of leaving the apartment I would be. I have lived in a new town before, so what makes Durham any different? To me, it is a scary though that I have no idea where I am if I leave the apartment complex. I don't know my way around town and I am never going to run into anyone I know because I know so few people here. My family is not an hour away like they were, though they are a phone call away (which does help!), and I was thrown completely out of my daily activities that I was so used to in Logan. Moving here, for me was literally like moving to a different planet. Some people are great at moving and changes and crap like that. I am not one of those people. Change freaks me out. I like things to be what they have always been. Moving here is a very different adventure than I ever planned for myself.
Although scary, moving can be a very positive thing. It has thrown me past my comfort zone (with the love of my life, thankfully), and onto a path I never planned. This path is making me better though. It is already making me a stronger person than I was in Utah, and it is a pleasant trial that I get to go through. Yes, as soon as I drive past the "Welcome Home" sign at the front of our complex, I experience a small anxiety attack that makes my heart beat too fast and I begin to slightly panic, but in time I think I will drive with the comfort I used to know in South Weber, or at least the comfort level I had in Logan. I will begin to know more people here and maybe even run into someone I know at Kroger. Once I have a job hopefully I will get back into a routine that settles my life down and gives me structure; I need structure! The point is, everything that we as indivivuals struggle with, gets better in time. Our human nature is to adjust and I trust myself enough to know that I can find normalcy in this new beautiful town.
Moving is a change that forces us to do new things, meet new people, and change our routines. It pushes us out of our comfort zone, and leads us to become better people. Some changes in life we chose, and others we don't. I think we can turn any change or challenge we face into a positive influence on ourselves. It is up to us!
