Rethinking Moving Across the Country
The question that it comes down to is: why?
Today I finished reading Adam Grant’s book, Think Again. In short, it talks about the concept behind rethinking and why the process of learning and reconstructing your opinions matters. It was incredibly insightful and showed that I ought to buy the book. However, the conclusion struck me.
To oversimplify, he said:
In America’s obsession over finding happiness, re-consider why you are making the choices you are making. For example, if you are sad where you are now, moving to a different down will not make you happier. You will still be sad there. Happiness is not about the place. It is about the actions you take that bring happiness.
So to no surprise of myself, I’m sitting here shook because I’m moving to New York in a week.
I am not going to lie to you, I did start to panic just a bit. The people I have told have asked me: why?
I won’t praise myself for this, but never did I consider that New York would make me happier.
I never told anyone that I was going because I wanted to be happier. I said that I have the opportunity to leave and so I am going to take it. I told my friends that life is too short to consider the, “what if?” I said that I always wanted to try it.
This time last year, I was traveling back down from Berkeley to move the rest of my stuff back home. I was going to live at my mom’s house for the summer, a whole 4 miles away from where I was previously living with my father. At the time, I felt like staying with my mom would make me happier. As a child of divorce, I think I see now (literally now realizing) that whenever I would pack up to stay at the other persons’ house, it was because I grew tired of where I was, and I believed the others environment would make me happier. Unbeknownst to me, my problems remained: I was still under my parents’ roof, I was still unemployed, and I was still confined to a small room.
I am happier now than where I was a year ago. Nothing has changed: I am still at home (currently my father’s), I am still unemployed (cheers), and I am still confined to a small room. It is the actions (and much more patience) that I have done to make me feel this way. I am by no means having a stroll, but I am better.
So again, New York: why?
Besides wanting to cross something off my bucket list, I am young, and there are opportunities everywhere if you let them come to you. I don’t know who I am, I don’t know where I want to go, but I want to discover places that will push me to learn more about who I want to be.
What I have discovered being back home is that I don’t mind Los Angeles! I truly never thought I would be back here, like ever. And I am truly so thankful that I gave myself that opportunity. Some growing pains for sure, but an opportunity.
So, simply put, I am ready for another one.
Oh and if you’re thinking of not wanting to read any kind of book anytime soon, think again (wink).
