I know what you must be thinking, "Are you crazy?!" Everyone tells me I am for moving so far from home, but no, I am not crazy. Most people don't understand why I would take such a large leap and go across the country to start a new life. I'm leaving my family, my friends, and everything I have ever known for the past twenty years. The thing is, I'm not your typical college student. When I was a freshman, I didn't go off to college and live in a dorm and meet all these new people like all of my friends did. I lived at home and went to the university that was 20 minutes down the road. I didn't want to stay home, but I wasn't ready to leave just yet, and under some personal circumstances I wasn't able to. I have always been jealous of my friends who got to go off to college and create these new and exciting lives while I was home going through my same routine as always. For most people, going to college is the first life changing step into adulthood; however, my life changed very little, if at all. I didn't feel like I was living, but rather just existing. I wasn't branching out, making new friends, or creating all these new and exciting experiences. My life started to become duller until I couldn't take it anymore. I needed to make a change, so I made one. I made the decision to transfer schools and move 1,400 miles away from home.

I have never been the person who wanted to live in my hometown forever, I have always dreamed of the day I would leave. Life is too short, and there are too many beautiful places in this world to stay in the same town forever. I have dreams for my life that are too big for the small town I have grown up in. If you can't dream big then what's the point of dreaming at all? I have always wanted my life to be filled with adventures and moving half way across the country may just be the experience of a lifetime.

My family and friends didn't understand why I wanted to move so far away from them at first. It wasn't an easy decision to make. I would no longer have the luxury of driving ten minutes to my mom’s house to visit and talk, riding my bike to my grandparents for lunch, or having coffee every morning with my dad. All those simple pleasures I have taken for granted are now going to come to a halting stop. Now if I want to see my family I will have to book and buy a plane ticket to go home. But, I felt that I couldn't keep living such a dim life just because I felt guilty of leaving. Even though I will feel guilty of leaving my friends and family, I would hate myself forever if I never left at all.

The truth is, I am terrified of leaving. I am terrified of moving to a town where I know absolutely no one. I'm terrified of getting there and then possibly hating it more than living at home. But the one thing that beats all of these fears, the one that I am most scared of is not trying at all. I refuse to live a life of "what if?" I very well may move across the country and absolutely hate it. This may be the worst decision I will ever make, but it also may be the best. I may discover that moving so far away may be the best thing for me. I will never know what the outcome will be if I give into my fears and stay home. I have watched too many people give up on their dreams and adventures because of their fears. I refuse to let my fear of failure dictate my decisions. My mom always told me "you live and you learn" and that's exactly what I plan to do. I hope this decision will help me learn more about myself and help me discover who I am. I hope I meet amazing new people. I hope I see things I have never seen before. I hope to constantly challenge myself. I hope to fill my life with endless adventures. I hope to live my life to the fullest.

So maybe I am a little crazy for moving 1,400 miles away, but maybe a little crazy is a good thing.