This summer I’ll be coming up on my 4 year anniversary in New York – I almost can’t even believe it. (Insert quote about time flying). The other day we were about to go to bed and ended up on a tangent about my move from Chicago and how it all happened. It’s been a while since I’ve thought about it and truth be told it just doesn’t cross my mind these days, but taking that short trip down memory lane really brought back a deepened sense of gratitude for where life has brought me today.
Rewind to April of 2014 — my sister was coming to visit me in Chicago and we had an amazing sister weekend planned. She had just gotten to our apartment in Lincoln Park (fun fact: Lauren Nelson used to live in the exact same apartment and moved out a year before my roommates moved in! #smallworld) and a colleague at work had asked me to hop on a quick call. I took the call and long story short it turned out to be a potential job opportunity to transfer internally and move to New York. The opportunity came as a complete surprise and totally out of the blue. I had been working at Groupon for about 3 years (if you haven’t caught the Refinery29 office tour you might see a familiar face!), but life in Chicago was great and I wasn’t thinking about change at the time. I recall hanging up thinking to myself, “well, that’s interesting but I’m not looking to move right now†and didn’t think about it again for a solid month.
Fast forward to May and one by one, all of my closest girlfriends in Chicago were coming to our weekly dinner with news. “I got into business school! I’m moving to the suburbs! I fell in love and we’re moving to Houston!” It was a domino effect and all of a sudden our little world had completely changed. I have to admit that during this time of my life I was the happiest I had been in years–arguably in my entire adult life. I wasn’t ready at that point to think about any changes of my own and was content being happy for my friends and their news.
Then that call became a real opportunity. It was a chance to move my career forward, an exciting unknown, and after careful contemplation I realized that the wind of news that had swept across our friend group might not have missed me after all. The next thing I knew I was flying to New York for 48 hours in June and signing an official offer. It was the second time in my life that I had no effing clue what I was really getting myself into (the first being when I left for Chicago), but knew deep down that it was undoubtedly the next move. I didn’t see it in April, but after a few months I realized that life was telling me it was time to move onto the next chapter. I’m not usually one to jump into change head first, but I eventually acknowledged and embraced life’s little nudge.
Year by year it has only gotten better. I am forever grateful that my crazy (and very unorthodox path) took me to 4 different cities and eventually was the reason that I met MG. In case I haven’t shared this with you guys before, we were actually set up by one of my close friends that I met back in Denver when I first started this blog (almost 8 years ago). It’s crazy how things come full circle and with our recent engagement I can’t help but feel extremely grateful for paying attention to those life nudges along the way.
If I haven’t said it in a while thank you guys for following along with this crazy adventure over the years… I needed a reminder like this probably just as much as anyone that we’re all just doing our best to get by. If at any point this little corner of the internet has helped you (with something you’ve needed to hear, a pair of shoes you really wanted, or 10 minutes of an escape from work or screaming children) then it has been absolutely worth it. Lately I’ve found myself spending more time away from my computer enjoying life and I know that at the end of the day, that’s exactly where I need to be today.
P.S. — My NYC bucket list, 9 tips for finding an apartment in NYC, and 10 things to do with your parents in New York
I’ve always loved reading your posts Christine but rarely commented. This post spoke to me. I had a friend a few years ago who gave me the nudge I needed. I was in my early twenties and had started a Graphic Design job that I had really been excited about.
But a week into it things were going so bad. But I’m not a quitter, I felt. I was going to stick with it.
But I had a good friend who asked me “So, are you going to quit?”. He helped me realize the things I was experiencing at that job were not right at all and that they were not going to improve with time.
I’ll always be thankful for that nudge. And it led to other opportunities I would never have been able to experience otherwise.
Hi Kelcy, thank you so much for your comment! I’m glad the post resonated with you and that you made the decision you did – sometimes it’s just a little courage!