Moving to Seattle

Relevant KASB capacities:

• Attitude
• Willingness to take risks
• Organizational Skills
• Able to adapt
• Behavior
• Push oneself beyond their comfort zone

Reflection:

Being born and raised in Murray, Utah for nine years and relocating to Las Vegas, Nevada for another nine, I thought moving to another city would be no big deal (#NBD). I've done it before - so what else would be new? How soon did I forget that moving to Las Vegas wasn't the best experience in memory. Regaining friends was something quite difficult for me and it seemed to be a recurring theme when I arrived in Seattle. However, this time around was worse because I didn't have my family to lean on nor to support me.

I think the thing that kept me back the most was fear. Especially in such a transitional phase in our lives, I was more than ever afraid of rejection. Looking back, I'm not sure if there is anything I could do differently. I learned (though not soon enough) that once I discovered what self worth really meant, the confidence and security of who I really was came naturally. I'm currently at a point in my life as a graduating senior where I look back on my four years at the University and surprise myself with the vast amounts of growth I undertook. It's amazing how much I have changed these past four years - and for the better!

If there were a few nuggets of knowledge I could impart (because I wish I did these things sooner), I would say:

• FIND YOUR PASSION. The earlier you find it, the easier life will be. Doing what you love really will make you happy... and the money will come if you're good at what you do and stick to it.
• TRY NEW THINGS. If you're like me and have no clue about what you love, trying new things will help lead you to the right path. Be it joining a club, working at a certain job, talking to people different from you, etc. - any kind of experience will be a learning one.
• OWN IT. This one is more personal. It took me a while to really find out who I was and who I was comfortable being. Once I gained that self confidence, I had no fear of going after what I really wanted. I learned that all my words, all my actions were justified because this is me and I'm not ashamed to own that.

Moving not only from cities but to a Husky Leader

Willingness to take risks

I am the youngest child in my family (one older brother, one older sister) and I was the only one who dared to go out-of-state. I don't want to undermine my siblings' accomplishments because they are both doing great and amazing things with their lives. My point is only to illustrate that relocating for college is definitely a foreign experience unheard of for my family. My fear for getting stuck in Las Vegas was greater than my fear for moving to a completely new place. With no idea or notion of what to expect, I checked the box "Attending" and began planning for a new life.

Able to adapt

Needless to say, Vegas is a very different city than Seattle. The first noticeable difference is the weather. Being in a desert where summers are consistently over 110 degrees, it was to no surprise that I did not like rain. Even to this day, I pout eight months out of the year when it does rain. However, three months after discovering that I do not like the feel of wet socks, I have equipped myself with a Northface, two pairs of rain boots, and several umbrellas - just as a precaution for the days that I cannot avoid getting wet. Another culture shock was how environmental Seattle was. I never really knew what a green movement was until I moved here. I was mindblown to see a "recycle" component of the trash cans around campus - something unheard of in Vegas. The Trash/Compost/Recycle three-pack bins are a new addition to the Las Vegas McCarran airport as of the last three years, when in Seattle it has probably been established over ten. These two examples are few of many distinctions I learned when coming across true Seattleites.

Push oneself beyond their comfort zone

I think the greatest example of going outside of comfort zones is living with people. In  my sorority, I stayed in a porch room. Essentially, my bed was part of the sleeping porch where 12 bunk beds conglomerated into one room. My actual possessions were then in a separate room (called the porch room) with five other women. Not only did I have to learn how to share space, I had to learn how to deal with everyone's weird things (for example, someone kept stealing food from us though we never found out who it was. The nice thing was that we had the option of moving rooms every three months for the new quarter. The bad thing was you had to learn another roommate's living styles and quirks. It's not easy.