London & Los Angeles <3.
I think one of the most bizarre parts of graduating and coming into adulthood is the reality that people begin to go their separate ways and begin living their own lives. We all find different paths that work for us and we try to follow them to get to ultimately reach our ever-changing goals. As the semester began winding down a few weeks ago, I said goodbye to a girlfriend of mine that was leaving to start her life with her long-term boyfriend in Tennessee. As I wished her luck in Nashville and she wished me luck in England, I realized how different people’s paths in life really are. For her, it involves moving across the country to start a life in a foreign city with her boyfriend. For me, it involves moving across the world to pursue higher education and an indescribable life experience. For some, it involves working in an entry level job while living in a super cramped studio apartment in San Francisco and for others, it involves staying at home to keep a hold of a safety net. It’s the time in our lives where we can legitimately chase our dreams, regardless of how ludicrous our ideas may sound to onlookers.
Everything really hit me about thirty minutes ago. One of my girlfriends, whose ultimate goal is to become a publicist in Los Angeles, decided to apply for an internship in LA last week. She drove down to LA on Thursday, interviewed for two unpaid PR-related internships and just found out today that she got the one she wanted! In three short weeks, she’ll be packing up her X3 and taking a trip down to LA to get to work on her dreams. It’s weird saying goodbye to everyone; to friends, to family and to the security of home. We hope that we’ll all stay in touch, and luckily with the advent of social networking sites & BlackBerries, we can stay connected fairly easily. However, the reality is that we all become different people. We all grow up. Right now we’re all young adults grappling with the idea of being twenty-somethings trying to navigate our way in the world and trying to find paths that will lead to success. We’re not sureexactly if the path we uncover is the right one or where it will ultimately lead, but there is some excitement and fulfillment in finding and pursuing a path at all. Although idling in a realm of complacency gives us a sense of security in knowing that we have a paycheck, a place to live, a car to drive and family and friends to rely on, it doesn’t really lead to that final level of self-actualization (look at me, referencing Maslow’s hierarchy of needs…). Although that sense of security is important for some (or most) of us, it’s being able to branch out that helps us grow. If we stay in our holes because it’s comfortable, we will never be able to acclimate when our environment forces us. Feeling uncomfortable, missing home, pushing away that sense of fear and uncertainty shapes us and lets us appreciate the happiness that we have in life. Our minds have the opportunity to change and understand new and different perspectives and ultimately the experience makes us better people and better contributors to the world. We’re all scared and we all question our decisions at some point, but in the end, we’ll be able to look back and know that we tried; whether our path was the right one or not, at least we had the chance to experience it and find out for ourselves.
Lots of love & best wishes,
The Traveling Scholar 