Embracing Change

February 20th 2019

The world doesn’t stop for anyone. Keep moving forward.

With less than 100 days until I move away from the state I grew up in, I am spending a lot of my time thinking about change and how I got to where I am. I wrote a post called Change And Other Scary Things where I talked a lot about how intimidating and uncomfortable change can be. When I wrote that post, my biggest concerns were moving and graduating. With graduating long into my past, moving is the only thing occupying my mind in the realm of change.

However, thinking back to graduating, I realize the change wasn’t as intense or scary as I originally thought and I have actually come a long way and grown a lot through graduating and moving forward with life. With the move, on the other hand, I am mostly concerned about leaving my job and starting work somewhere new. I am nervous about making friends as an adult and finding a comfortable place where I fit in.

I know that, in the long run, this experience will be beneficial whether or not I spend the rest of my life to the new state I am moving to, or if I choose to pick up and move again either back to NY or somewhere entirely new. I know that growth comes through changes both big and small, so this post is more about embracing change than it is about fearing it, like in the previous post I mentioned.

So here are just a few ways I plan to embrace the move as a new experience, instead of allowing myself to shut down and become a sad shell of a person:

1. I will step out of my comfort zone and try new activities- There is this company where I am moving that is called Skillpop that allows you to take relatively inexpensive workshops on just about everything. There are classes about curating an instagram feed, growing a blog audience, buying a house, pairing wines and cheeses, and so much more. I feel like taking some social media, marketing, and blogging workshops may really help me meet like-minded people and come out of my shell a bit. I also want to find a yoga studio and perhaps look into getting my children’s yoga certification. That is sure to help me make new friends as well, and if not, I still have new activities to keep me busy!
2. I will reach out to friends from home- Just because I am moving, doesn’t mean my friends from home no longer exist. I plan to reach out frequently with the intention of not only staying close, but also keeping myself sane.
3. I will spend time alone and embrace new surroundings- I am moving to a place that is entirely new to me! I only spent about 1 day there so I know very little about everything it has to offer. I want to challenge myself to step out of my comfort zone more and try out new places alone. I was thinking of making it a series on here so I would feel more comfortable and encouraged to get out and go somewhere new.

Overall, I think that embracing change will be super healthy for me. My fear of change has held me back a lot from making greater steps towards my future and dealing with “the great unknown”. But I feel like this experience will really be like ripping off a band-aid and once I get it over with, I will feel way more secure and comfortable with changes.

How do you deal with hard change? For me, I am choosing to embrace it despite feeling uncomfortable!

Jess~