One Year Later
This past week marks the end of my first year in Seattle. I can’t help but to think back to when I was walking out of SeaTac airport one year ago. I was a bundle of emotions. Excited. Scared. Intrigued. Nervous. And feeling immensely independent. My entire life was changing right before my eyes, and I had no idea what the future held for me. Now I’m no longer new to the area. I no longer need a GPS app to go most places. I can recommend restaurants and things to do just like a local. I’m settled into Seattle life, and I don’t like that I used that word, but it’s true.
This past week has provided me a chance to reflect on many aspects of my life, and how I live each day. I was excited to move to Seattle - I was going to be in a new city that I could get lost in, but I don’t do that anymore. I don’t adventure out. I’m slipping into a routine. I’ve become comfortable in Seattle. This has made me complacent in goals and in pursuit of adventure. It’s made me slip into old bad habits like deciding fast food is ok, or multiple days of just watching Netflix, or forgetting the arts. While all of this is good in moderation (except maybe forgetting the arts), it’s not good to make the norm. Complacency is not ok. Not personally or professionally.
As I’ve reflected on what this past year has brought, I realized that the fire I had for adventure and independence has diminished. This realization came as I was journaling, trying to get into a headspace to figure out what I want the next year to look like. During the past week, I‘ve upped the play count on my “Seattle song” by at least 30, if not more. My own personal independence is something I lost a one point in my life, and that I’ve worked very hard to regain, making sure that I can survive emotionally as my own person. It’s become a very important aspect of life for me. Part of this independence is relentless pursuit of something new, an adventure. And while I’ve not lost it, I’ve lost sight of it, and want to refocus.
I’d say one year in, the biggest lesson that I have learned is that while it is very empowering to land in a new place and have the chance to reinvent yourself, this isn’t something that should be a one-time process. It should be a continual process. You might be thinking that “well, duh Landon, we’re always reinventing ourselves.” But I would argue that moving to a new place causes this to be a thoughtful effort, while reinvention and self-improvement can sometimes be a very gradual or stagnated process once you become comfortable, settled, and complacent.
I used #OnwardAndUpward over the past year, and it’s time to transition. The new mantra for this coming year: #InPursuit. A reminder to continually be in pursuit of dreams, adventures, and the unknown.
“The tragedy of life is often not in our failure, but rather in our complacency; not in our doing too much, but rather in our doing too little; not in our living above our ability, but rather in our living below our capacities.” — Benjamin E. Mays