As a young child, the thought of living without my parents in the same house scared me more than anything.
I marveled at students older than I for being able to leave home and go somewhere else by themselves; no matter if it was for a program, a job, or school. At the time, leaving my parents for more than a couple days was my limit. I had no intention of doing it for an extended period of time. Of course, there came times when I would go to camps but they would be a day camp, and at the end of the day, I would always get to go home. This is a luxury I took for granted, but it is not something that stayed the same.
Though previously I had already been leaving home for various camps in the summer for two weeks, junior year of high school was the game changer for me. I had started traveling to see friends who were farther away. Though that began towards the end of my freshman year of high school, junior year is when I discovered how ready I was to leave home for longer and to get a better sense of my independence.
I had visited a friend in New York City several times, and had absolutely fallen head over heels in love with the city. I found a week long photography intensive at the Fashion Institute of Technology that was of low cost and close to one of my friend's apartment who graciously let me stay with her. Additionally, that winter I had been offered a job with family friends out of state during the summer. That in itself was probably one of the most life changing decisions I have yet to make. It brought me into a whole different life I would have never known or experienced had I decided to only do the photo intensive. That June of 2013, the once-scared girl that I was joyfully hopped on a bus headed for NYC knowing I would not be home for two months. Following those ten days in the city, I took yet another bus to my summer job. Almost three years later, with three summers of that same summer job under my belt, I do not regret any of it.
Had I not done that, I would have never learned the lessons I learned about myself and from others. It has been three years of growth, of pure happiness, of incredible sadness and of so much strength and knowledge. There were was the extremely good and there was the extremely bad, yet I am grateful for all of it. I lived, again, with an incredible amount of support around me. I gained a second set of parental figures for me, from whom I've learned so much from and who are some of the best people in this world. I made incredible friendships with some I can call my closest friends. I was closer to another relative who I cherished incredible times with before her passing. The past year tested my strength from all of this, but the strength I gained from those experiences helped me through the most difficult year in my life to date.
All of this from making the decisions to live outside of my home before the initial college separation. My experience was unique and I was very lucky to have that. As one who was at first scared of the entire idea, I know it is daunting. Any person who has the opportunity to experience independence like that at a young age is someone I encourage to do so. Living on your own away from home tests your boundaries and forges experiences never thought possible. And when you do come home, it will never feel as good as it does in that moment.
