Leaving your life behind is such a liberating experience, but as my new friend Evita would say, “it is a double-edge sword”. Being the youngest and most inexperienced of the group, it was definitely challenging to say goodbye to the ones I loved. I have never been away from home for longer than two weeks, so this has been a major growing experience. I am blessed to say though, this experience has a way of making you face your fears. I have come a long way in just a month and I look forward to seeing my transformation after everything is said and done.
Posts Tagged ‘ leaving home ’
“..but that’s not how it used to be…”
It’s been a tough week, getting ready to leave. Although traveling is not new to me, I am surprised at how mentally unprepared I am to leave.
Why is it so hard this time? Maybe it’s old age. But I’m thinking it might have something to do with the fact that this time, I’m leaving a relationship at home. I started dating my now-boyfriend when I returned from South America two years ago. Two months later, I was supposed to leave for an English teaching job in Korea. I was torn between the traveling plans I had made and this completely new thing called love that I hadn’t even believed in before.
What did I do? The only thing I felt I could do. I’ve never been the type of girl to put my life on hold for a guy. And so, off I went. After a few months of teaching the overworked, overachieving youth of Korea and surviving off of kimchi and Korean bbq, I was ready to come home. I used to think of home as a place where I could recharge and get ready to launch my next adventure. Coming home to my boyfriend – and actually staying home – gave the idea of home a whole new meaning.
Now that I’m finally heading out on the road again, I’m finding this whole up-and-leaving thing isn’t as easy as it used to be. I blame it on a little thing called putting down roots that I used to swear I’d never do.
A lot of people don’t travel because they think it’s hard to leave home. Of course it’s hard. It’s only easy if you’re not leaving anything behind. But just because it’s hard doesn’t mean you stay home.
So I’m pushing myself forward, propelling myself into this next, life-changing chapter and stockpiling my boyfriend with an arsenal of calling cards and Skype credits.
As you can probably all imagine, leaving home is never an easy thing to do. Some people get frustrated with the actual details of packing up their belongings and attempting to squish their life into a suitcase/backpack that can be easily maneuvered, others have a hard time leaving friends, and some just have a hard time leaving their routine.
Well, I had a pretty hard time with all of these, but saying goodbye to the friends I had made in LA was the hardest of all. The recording studio I worked in had become a second home for me. The majority of my best friends were my coworkers and we all hung out together in our spare time despite the fact that we were usually spending about 60+ hours a week working anyway.
I had far too many porch parties at work with all my coworkers at Conway... They usually looked something like this.
I had other good friends outside of work that I will miss just as much, but the ties that I had at work were something that will never be forgotten.
LA quite honestly rocked my world and I’m going to genuinely miss it. As excited as I am to be a part of the Jet Set Zero team, there will always be a piece of me sitting in Los Angeles. It was never the dazzling lights of Hollywood, the fake styrofoam Grammy statues (yeah, those made me laugh, a lot), or the rockstars, it was all about the people I’d met on the sidelines. Sitting in a dark deserted bar bullshitting about the stupidest things somehow became one of my favorite activities because I love people, stories, and well, beer.
The Short Stop - Best Local Bar Ever.
My lovely ladies...
So here’s a little taste of my last day in what I frequently called Lala Land, and how I felt about joining the team literally hours before departure. You even get to see my last beer, which as I mentioned is always pretty cool in my book.
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