Moving again: A survival guide
I was walking around my neighborhood one sunny Saturday a few weeks ago when it hit me: I’ve built up a pretty good life here in D.C. I’m living in a city full of intelligent, motivated young people, I’m getting to produce original work for one of the best news organizations in the country, I have an active social life, and I have access to so many free art museums! For the first time since I’ve graduated college, I feel like I have found a home.

Much like this path at the garden of the National Cathedral, your path, too, will be rocky at times when you move to a new place.
So you might be surprised to learn that I’m moving. Exactly one week from today, in fact. For the next month, my life will be in a state of flux — finishing up my job at NPR, saying goodbye to friends, schlepping my stuff from one city to another, visiting family in Illinois and Texas, meeting with journalism professors, hanging out with my 96-year-old grandmother — before I finally settle down in middle Tennessee, where I’ll be an on-air enterprise reporter at Nashville Public Radio.
I’m thrilled to start working as a full-time reporter at a fantastic station. But despite my professional excitement, I’m personally slightly terrified. Because starting over is hard. I’ve done it four times now in the past two years, so I can say that as a fact. It’s hard going to a place where you have no close friends, or no friends at all. It’s hard adapting to a new culture, whether it’s on a different continent or a different part of this vast country. It’s hard getting lost all the time, taking wrong turns because the GPS didn’t update in time, walking down streets that suddenly feel unsafe. There are the days when you say, Yes, I feel incredibly lucky to be having adventures, but I really just want a) a hug and b) to find my way home.Read More »Moving again: A survival guide