That's the number 1 question I get asked next to what nationality I am, (Mexican just so everyone knows) when I moved here to Chicago. My first response honestly is "I wanted snow," its not that I've never seen it, its just that I wanted to experience one of those Hollywood lives where the girl is walking down a street with coffee in hand and shopping bags in another as the snow falls and Frank Sinatra echos through the streets. I pictured myself as Carrie from "Sex and the City," or Sally from " When Harry Met Sally," that girl that has it at.

I could say that's my reason, period, but in reality it's not.

I remember one day someone asked me what I wanted to do with my life and where I wanted to go to school, my only answer was to be a psychologist, I didn't care where I went to school. Originally it was between ASU and UNLV (granted I grew up in both Arizona and Las Vegas) then I heard someone say, " once you go to college in Vegas, you don't leave." That made me question everything I knew, honestly. I had never once regretted living in Las Vegas or Arizona, I love those places dearly, but I couldn't imagine myself staying any longer than I need to. I hadn't really known much besides the typical trip to the neighboring states and Mexico.

Eventually by the summer of my junior in High school, family and I took a trip to Chicago. One look at this city and I was in love. I don't think I've ever known a love like this. By senior year I was accepted into Roosevelt University and my family and I road tripped from Las Vegas to the Windy City and my heart couldn't be happier. But then reality kicked in, my family wasn't staying with me. I was giving myself to the big bad city alone and I have never once looked back. It took me a bit to understand, "why would I do this to myself," I had no friends, no family, I had NO ONE.

So when people ask me "why would you move to a different state, away from your friends and family?," I will say it is because if I didn't leave home, I wouldn't have gotten to experience what Chicago had to offer. I wouldn't know it's like to leave my comfort zone and redefine myself as an adult and to make it on my own. I moved because my soul needed to be filled with adventure and stories I never want forget. I needed to leave a bubble that had nothing left to protect me from.

Of course when anything bad happens to me out here I want to run back home to the comfort of my parents arms and never leave because I know what the security of home feels like. But knowing myself, I also know that throwing myself into this world proves all the hard work my parents put into raising me was well worth it. That because of them I can stand on my own 2 feet and not fear what lies ahead of me. I moved away from home to learn how to be a better me and for that I thank my friends and family for always supporting me in every way possible and never letting fall.

This is for them.