6 Things We Learned After Moving Across The Country
People move away from where they grew up for many reasons, whether it’s for college, a new job, a new opportunity, a change of scenery, or a simply a desire to try something new. Regardless of the reason, a little piece of each person’s heart tends to stay with the place you grew up in. It comes out in our personalities, our world views, and (as many have pointed out to both of us) our accents! Moving from Minnesota to Miami has not been easy for us, but it has helped us grow in ways we never thought we would! We have learned so much since our move and thought we’d share some of them with you. If you’ve ever thought about moving away, here are some things to consider!
Find your identity apart from family/friends
When you grow up somewhere, you are influenced by the people that you grew up with – your family, the relationships and friendships you invested in, and the mentors that helped you along through life. Moving to a new state was an eye-opening realization for us. We no longer had a community of like-minded people built into our lives to encourage, and support each other. Although we had been married for two years and living away from home at the time of our move, we still largely relied on our support system for a sense of security and guidance. After moving to Miami, we both came to the understanding it was time to figure out who Matt and Miranda were without our support system in the same state. It has been a difficult but enlightening road where we have discovered things that we never expected to – about each other and the life we want for ourselves.
Be intentional about finding a community
After moving to a new city that we had no prior connections to, we shouldn’t have been so surprised when developing new friendships and relationship wasn’t that easy. After spending 20 + years of our lives cultivating relationships back home, we were missing connection and depth in our new friendships. However, we knew we couldn’t expect to find this overnight. Developing these relationships would take time and effort on our part, something we did not do a great job of initially. Thankfully, we were fortunate to meet some great people through Matt’s program and two great couple friends through our first two years of occasional church attendance. Nevertheless, it took us two years to realize one of the biggest things we have missed since moving is belonging to a church family. We are now part of a church community we love, VOUS Church, through which we have been able to make even more meaningful connections!
Recognize homesickness happens
Yes Mom, we still miss you all the time. Homesickness is a real part of living far from home. We have been blessed with supportive families who both understand our reasons for being away. Regardless, that doesn’t negate the sting of missing family gatherings, special events, and day to day happenings of the people you love. We have missed out on a lot of big things since moving away – the weddings of friends and family members, the birth of our first beautiful little niece, birthdays, anniversaries and worst of all, holidays. Not spending Thanksgiving or Christmas in Minnesota for the last two years has been difficult. Even though we haven’t been able to spend the holidays up north, both of our families have made it to Miami in the winter months. If there is one thing we won’t complain about, it’s avoiding the brutal Minnesota winter!
Cherish time with loved ones more
Although the quantity of time we are able to spend with family and friends back home has decreased, we have seen the quality of our time together increase. Absence does make the heart grow fonder, and it also makes Grandma cook really good food when you come home! Distance has caused us to cherish the time we DO get with family and friends much more than we did before. We now look forward to visits, hosting visitors, and make time with our loved ones more of an event!
Making new connections changes your perspective
Moving to a large city, especially a diverse international city like Miami, has been such an amazing experience for us. Most of our life we spent surrounded by people with similar stories and backgrounds as we had. However, Miami is filled with people from every part of the world and from all over the U.S. After living in such a transient city, we have been able to form so many connections with people we otherwise would never have met; people from different states and countries. We have been enlightened by their stories and amazed to see how different and how similar we all are! Being part of such a diverse community has truly deepened our love for people and we have learned so much from their perspectives of life. We also may have never discovered croquettes and Cuban coffee!
Find clarity and vision for your future
Despite the struggles we have faced, our move to Miami has helped us grow and shape our desires for the future. It has given us the chance to step away from what feels safe and pursue the dreams that have been placed in our hearts. We have experienced a lot of change since leaving home. Our mindsets concerning lifestyle, diet, and being good stewards of our environment; as well as our passions for exploring our local community, the outdoors, and traveling have all been developed over the past few years. As our interests and mindsets have developed, we have also found more clarity for what lies ahead for us after Miami.
We will never know how another path may have affected our views and dreams for our future, but we do know that our experiences over the past few years in Miami have played a major role in shaping who we want to be – both as individuals and as a couple. We are thankful for the amazing chance we have been given to be on this adventure, and are so excited to take on our next challenge!
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