It's been a year and a half since I sold basically everything I owned, packed up my few remaining belongings and shoved them into my tiny little Fiat (which required some serious Tetris skills) and hit the road. I drove west flooded with confusion and unknown and excitement swimming around in my head. I had dreamed about this for many years. I spent so much time and energy looking for reasons to legitimize the choice to move as well as looking for reasons to stay.

My sweet friend Erin came along for the ride. Erin was experiencing her own life transition and a cross country road trip seemed like a good reset. That was such a gift. Having a companion helped keep the drive fun and easy for the most part. I am pretty sure that had Erin not been there, I would have turned around somewhere in Oklahoma or at least cried my way through Texas.

Taking this leap was the product of years of thoughts and conversations, job applications, and prayers. It was the product of multiple trips out to LA for "research" and just to "check it out" and finally it just felt so dumb to keep asking the question, I mean, ultimately, who cares! What's the worst thing that could possibly happen?

It's crazy to believe the long anticipated California adventure is finally in play and has been for a little while now. I've never once felt like a visitor, it was home from the beginning. A new home, but home nonetheless.

I am not sure why but the transition hasn't felt as world rocking as I anticipated. Moving across the country is a big deal and so much has changed. New job, new apartment, new friends and experiences, I fell in love with the most wonderful man and this has been the sweetest season. But it's still life. Life with ups and downs. You win some, you lose some. People like you or they don't, bills and taxes still have to be paid, the list goes on and on and it's all a part of it. Wherever you go, good and bad still happens and no amount of sunshine and palm trees can change that.

So what is the lesson here? Where's the beef?

The biggest take away of this season has been learning to trust myself. The California dream had been in my heart for a long time and I just buried it because it seemed silly and that I was too old to start over and that I didn't have good enough reasons.

Something broke free inside me once I gave myself permission to pursue the life I wanted. When I began making choices that brought me joy, even if they might disappoint or confuse others. Once I embraced the not-knowing and fully trusted that I could figure things out as I went, the world opened up in ways that were more lovely and gritty and colorful than ever before.

Please take time to ask these questions. Pay attention to the people and places and activities that light you up on the inside. You are better when you are full and free and the world is better for that too. We get one shot at this life and it's worth the hustle to go hard in the direction of your dreams.

Jeremiah 6:16a (ESV): "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls."