Personally there has always been a weird thrill for me moving to a new place, don't get me wrong it is honestly terrifying at the same time. I moved to a completely new country when I was 13, and as terrible as it seemed at the time, I think that the challenge of not only starting middle school but starting somewhere completely different than the last place I had been shaped who I am as a person today.

There is a strange contingency of wanting to go somewhere completely different along with something new that is terrifying. This stems from the voice in your head asking what if it doesn't work out? What if I don't make friends? What if I hate this new place? On the other side of that though it's good to ask yourself to look at the potential. Think about all of the things that could go right. Ask yourself, what if things worked out? What if things ended up being amazing? Being uncomfortable and scared and taking risks is the fastest way to finding yourself. There is nothing wrong at all with staying somewhere that you are comfortable and happy, I'm not saying that at all. However, if there is even a thought, or a thought of a thought that you might want to try something new or somewhere new,GO! Life is funny because starting over is a high risk, high reward game.

I decided on attending Alabama 2 months before graduation on a whim, I did not know anyone. My parents and teachers and numerous trusted adults begged me not to move 13 hours away to a state where I didn't know anyone and didn't have any family. I was told over and over again how I was going to hate Alabama and end up transferring back to Texas somewhere. The funny thing was though Alabama was one of the best things I ever did for myself. The first two days I was in Tuscaloosa I cried and cried and begged my mom to let me go back to Austin with her. Once I got past the fear though I opened myself up to an amazing new world where I learned more about myself than I think I would have in any other situation. I think it's important to get comfortable being uncomfortable because that is the situation where you learn the most and good or bad you are a better person for that experience. If at the end of the day you look at your life with less feelings of "what if" and more feelings of "well, I tried and it was a wild ride but didn't work out" there is a kind of gratification.

Starting over is terrifying in any way, new relationships and new places but those experiences might be exactly what you needed at the point in your life though. Starting over in little ways count too, it's important to look back on how far you as a person have come and how you use those experiences to shape the person you want to be and the life you want to live. Even if you don't start completely over in a new place, open yourself up to opportunities and you will be surprised where you end up and who you end up with. When you are faced with no other options but to push past the fear you will be surprised with how much you gain. There is never going to be another time in your life where it's acceptable to be selfish and to take these chances. Even at the points where it seems like life is just not going the way you think it should things typically work themselves out. The secret is that everyone else is just as scared to try something new, even if they seem like they aren't. So own it, be honest and at the end of the day at least you know that you did everything you could have done to make it work and it just wasn't something that was meant to be.