Recently, I’ve had conversations with several people about my constant need to keep moving. Whether it be actively exercising in the gym, being involved in my community, or traveling around the country to different cities for different jobs, I’ve always never seemed to want to slow down. I guess that can be a good thing at times, but I’m finding it to be quite difficult when it comes to enjoying the here and now.
Since I turned 18, I’ve always been on the go. I moved to Conway, South Carolina for my first semester of college all before I flunked out and moved back to Spartanburg, South Carolina to “take a break” from school. After staying there for a little over a year, I decided it was time to get back into school. After a successful semester at the local college in my hometown, I moved to Columbia, South Carolina to take up broadcast journalism. Two years later, I graduated and then was off to my first gig as a TV reporter in Augusta, Georgia. From Augusta, I moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan. Three months later, I moved back to Atlanta and then six months later, I was off to Lexington, Kentucky. Less than two years after that move, I landed a gig in Palm Springs, California. Not even a year after that, I moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and then back to Atlanta. Do you see where I’m going here? I’ve never felt settled in my life. I’ve been on-the-go for as long as I can remember, so it feels natural to want to up and move after a year in a city.
On the contrary, I’m married to a man that spent 21 years living in one place. His way of living combined with mine doesn’t mesh well, so I’ve been actively trying to find ways of slowing this knee-jerk reaction for up and moving to a new city every couple of years. It’s not that I don’t like Atlanta. I love it here, but my mind tells me something different. In contract works as a TV reporter, I’ve hated and then grown to love the areas I’ve lived in, and just at the time where I’m feeling settled, the news Gods throw me a curveball and direct my sights to a city on the opposite side of the country. While it’s exhausting to up and move so often, I’ve learned to look at it as an adventure. But all adventures do come to an end.
This is the first time in my life since the age of 18 that I’ve faced the prospect of settling down. My husband just started on his four-year degree at Georgia State University which means we’ll be here for at least another three and a half years. As much as I’ve panicked in my head about what’s next for me and us, I’ve had to accept that settling down isn’t always a bad thing. I never thought it was before, but now I have the opportunity to try something long-term.
I’ve always wondered why people felt like settling down was so hard to do. Is there fear we might miss out on other opportunities or events in life? I think to a degree, I feel if I’m not constantly on the go, I’ll miss out on the ability to grow through new experiences and new interactions with people in different parts of the country. But I’m still young, and there’s still a lot of life to live. This time in my life is just as important and future journeys, and with that, I can officially say that I’m happy to be an Atlantan, for the foreseeable future, at least!