6 Things You Learn From Leaving Everything Behind

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I have a wandering soul and I have spent a lot of my life trying to fix myself. I always believed that the way my brain worked was a flaw in my DNA or something I could try to ignore and make go away. I have since realized I didn’t need to be fixed, I needed to be found.

I woke up one morning and decided I was going to pack my life away and move across the country. I didn’t know a soul, I didn’t know much about Colorado, and I was scared as hell. But I pushed through the doubt from my family and friends, the fear, and the sleepless nights I laid in bed asking myself, “Can I actually do this?”

It takes a certain kind of courage to just pack your life up and leave everything you have ever known and loved. I thought I made a decent life for myself in Florida. I was in school, I had the world’s greatest friends, I was even in love. But looking back now I can see just how lost I actually was. I was simply floating along, was simply content. I was constantly trying to mold myself into a person I was not in order to be a good daughter, student, friend, girlfriend, etc.

I remember the morning I got onto I-75 North. As I was leaving my old life behind to head for my new life in Colorado I looked in the rear view mirror and promised that I would make a life for myself that I would never have to run from again.

I have no idea where I will end up next, but for the first time in my life I am excited to wake up in the morning. Strive to have the life you have always wanted. Remember to take your happiness into consideration. You are important. Be brave. If I can do it, you can too.

1. Community is a beautiful thing.

I live in employee housing at a ski resort and it has been an insanely humbling experience. I have met people from all walks of life, but we are all in the same boat. We are all in this in between gray area where we don’t really know if we are coming or going and it forms a bond like no other. I have seen friendship in people I have met here that I have never seen in friends I’ve known for years. We are a family away from our family and we are constantly coming together.

2. You can never let the world make you bitter.

I have been torn down and broken by people I would have gone to the end of the world for and loved with everything I had. In Florida, I had such a cynical view of life at times because I couldn’t grasp how people could be so hurtful. I’ve learned that it is not my job to control the actions of others. It is my job, however, to love them anyways, to constantly strive to see the best in them, and to show kindness even when it is not reciprocated.

3. Count your blessings and not your shortcomings.

I get to live on a mountain that people save up all year to visit. I get to open my blinds every morning to one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. I can choose to wake up and think of all the things I feel entitled to but don’t have; or I can wake up, crack open my window, and realize just how blessed I am to be breathing at all.

4. Less is more. I live an incredibly simple life.

The day I moved to the mountain I came here with four bags and gave up a lot of materialistic objects. But things are just that, things. I don’t have a lot, but I have never felt so full in my life.

5. Kindness is the most attractive quality a person can have.

Colorado is full of attractive people. It’s actually kind of scary. I never thought so many pretty people could exist in the same place at the same time. I started to realize that what made them so attractive is the fact that people here are so kind. I once had three people scraping the ice off my car at the same time while another person was shoveling me out of the snow in nine degree weather because I had no idea what I was doing. People here are so beautiful and it’s because they have such good hearts. If you aren’t beautiful on the inside, it doesn’t matter how you look on the outside.

6. You should say, “I love you” more often.

I have never been an affectionate person, but lately receiving an “I love you” text or call from family and friends makes me feel on top of the world. Being here has taught me that letting someone know you love them doesn’t make you weak. Every person deserves to know just how much they are loved and you never know how taking a few seconds out of your day to tell someone you love them could impact them. Let your cup overflow with love and never be afraid to share it. I love each and every one of you.