People are the same… every where.

So, I just realized that not everyone has lived in 11 of the 50 United States.

I have.

I was born in Decatur, Illinois… in the middle of corn fields and smells of soy bean factories 🤮

People are resourceful and kind. Church was the main artery of life and community. I met a lot of funny people at church camp and got to travel with my youth group which generated a lot of funny stories and inside jokes.

I moved to Texas and Oklahoma before returning to Illinois, all under the age of 12. I didn’t know that I was an outlier. I remember getting to be outside a lot when I lived there, and I loved that my family expanded to include Hispanic people.

I went to college in Oregon, and did summer internships in Washington, Indiana, and California …where I stayed for grad school. Met hilarious people in all four areas.

OR was very diverse, with a coffee shop in every corner… and I saw homelessness for the first time. Washington was lush and I lived with a very wealthy, but generous, Christian family.

Indiana was similar to home, with modest and resourceful people. But I met one of the funniest people I’d ever encountered and unleashed a new thread of jokes and pranks.

I did find CA to be the most pretentious and materialistic place I’d ever been, but the diversity and sunshine were unmatched. I didn’t feel like I belonged there, but I was amidst a sea of others who felt the same.

I lived in Kentucky for my first job after grad school, where I spent time exploring nature and enjoying the beauty of horse farms. I ran a. 5K race for the first time, and made a really good (hilarious) friend named Emily. I also panicked and married the wrong person, but that’s a story for another time.

After three years, I quickly returned to California where I stayed for 15 years. I loved the sunshine and the diversity in Southern California. I made lots of hilarious friends and I ran a 10k and half marathon with a few of them.

I then moved to North Carolina for a postdoc where o made two really beautiful friends, painted a lot, and hiked in the mountains.

Next, I moved to Oxford, Ohio where I live now. I also spent a winter and summer in Montana with the love of my life, my current husband, until he moved to Ohio with me.

What I’ve learned is that people are the same every where. There are funny people every where you go, there are also cynical people, insecure people, kind people and so on.

The smaller your world is, the more things seem to matter… as drama really disappears when you zoom out into a wider lens. I don’t get attached to small town gossip or drama- my world is much bigger. And yet it’s so small… I have a lot yet to learn and experience.

It takes me about a year to make real friends… but community is always available. We are never alone.

You can decide WHO you want to be in any context.

And you can always start over.

You are only limited by your own imagination🌟

That’s what I’ve learned so far.