Currently, I am typing this from an airplane to Atlanta. Once I land, I will seek out either a slice of cheese pizza or the impossible burger from Burger King. Then I will make my connection and head to my new home for the next 3 months: San Francisco. Poignantly, I am reflecting on the last time I moved across the country in 2022.
In 2022 I was wickedly depressed and freshly broken up with. All I could think about from my snowed-in dorm room was how much happier I would be living somewhere hot. I liked kids, I liked Florida, and I liked doing things seriously out of my comfort zone, so I applied for a job at a summer camp in Palm Harbor. I assumed the name “Calypso” and became the pseudo-mommy of fifteen 7-9year olds weekly.
I LOVED this time in my life. I was the head of the zipline course and spent my days encouraging girls to face their fears. When I wasn’t on the zips, I was paddling in the Gulf of Mexico, lounging on a beach, making the BEST banana boats over a campfire, and consoling little girls with splinters (there were a loooooot of splinters).
When I look back, I wasn’t afraid whatsoever to leave my home and dive into this. I live for that tingly feeling in your stomach when you step into the unknown.Traveling for leisure versus traveling for escape are very different things.
So now, nearly four years later, I am once again packing the same luggage for another trip across the country. Instead of tiny crop tops and bikinis, I now have scrubs and lab manuals. Thankfully I have left the depression in 2022. Once again I know not a single soul living in my accommodation or pretty much anything about the job I am walking in to. My only line of defense against the anxiety of it all is leaning into how exhilarating it is to be able to do what I do.
I love my home and I love my family and I will ALWAYS cry hugging my mom goodbye. That doesn’t change the fact that I silently cringe when my peers tell me they are choosing to do all of their clinical rotations at home (or even worse staying in Ithaca!) I feel so lucky!
If I hate it, it’s only 3 months. When I love it, I will be begging the days to go slower and time to freeze. And then in a few years the cycle will start all over again. Maybe Hawaii? Arizona? Australia 😉