10 Years

10 years ago today, I moved from Ohio to Washington DC. It wasn't my first move away from home, but it was my first move outside of Ohio. I moved on my own. No friends on the other end...just a job. Dad and I packed up all of my belongings into a U-Haul and away we went, headed east to the big city. As a journalist who had just spent 5 years doing the local radio gig, this was about to be the "big time". I was taking a job at the Westwood One Radio Network. A Network job was about as good as it gets in the radio industry. It was suppose to be security and growth. Well, it was a growing experience. I made some amazing lifelong friends. I learned some very important lessons and in general, it was a 5 year period of internal growth...and some of those lessons were HARD!

I enjoyed living in Washington DC (well, Alexandria, Virginia). I loved that you could order food for delivery at any hour of the day or night and there were dozens of restaurants to choose from. I loved the museums. I loved that my parents could drive over in 6 hours and spend the weekend with me. I loved living in a high-rise and I loved that I was on my own!

More than any of that, I loved that the decisions in my life were made without fear and hesitation. It seems the older you get, the more afraid you get to make big choices...to make decisions that bring about change.

Now, I'm afraid to think of how much I may be missing by over-thinking the day-to-day decisions of life and at this pace, I'll be questioning the shear act of getting out of bed in about 20 more years. Sometimes, you just need to take the leap and go with the faith that everything will be fine.