*Written after a post-workday trip to a Lake Michigan Beach.*
It's easy to get comfortable. Being in the same town for years makes you feel safe and familiar, especially when you are surrounded by the people you love.
It may seem frightening and foreign, but having a job experience away from home is something that everyone should take advantage of. Young and success-hungry, a twenty-something looking to make a difference will have to push themselves outside their comfort zone. What better time to do so than now?
College will take you places. Meeting new people and learning new things are just some of the benefits of a college town. But once you step outside that college town, the world can seem bigger and badder. It's harder to connect with people, as you're labeled "the new girl" (or guy, of course) and the naive one. It's harder to find new things you like, as you're just trying to get comfortable again. More importantly, it's an overall new place in which you will be spending a significant amount of time.
Go.
Go somewhere you've never been before with people you have never met. Do things that make you uncomfortable, like embarrassing yourself playing a new sport or trying new foods that you probably wouldn't have, but your co-workers made you taste anyway. Even better, do it while you're young. Try something. It will be the best thing to come your way.
Yeah, you'll dread it at first. Your hometown has so much to offer: your family, friends, perhaps a significant other, pets, favorite restaurants and coffee shops, malls two miles down the road...why would you leave? Plus, it's hard work to understand the dynamics of a new city or state!
The beauty about doing this when you're young is that it's not permanent. Those first day jitters and uncomfortable introductions will wear off eventually. You will flourish in an area that you thought you would hate, making lifelong friends and forming new habits along the way. As crazy as it sounds, a new job in a new city will motivate you to set higher expectations and reach for heftier goals, awesome qualities to have as a young professional. Having a job experience in a different city will do one of two things: open your eyes to a whirlwind of new opportunities and/or help you recognize just how special those people that you left behind are, making your bond closer. Both are amazing accomplishments.
So, go do it. Move away for a summer and work. Capture the world. Take brain pictures (and actual pictures, of course). Remember to keep an open mind and a flexible spirit and when that happens, you definitely won't regret it.
