This is one of those blog posts where I’ve been staring at a blinking cursor on a blank word document for far too long. Not because I don’t know what to say… more because I don’t know HOW to say what I need to tell you today.

Maybe I need to just spit it out this time and forego my usual wordiness, so here goes:

 

 

I’m moving back to Arkansas.

 

In about a month. Which maaaaay seem like a snap decision, but it’s something I’ve actually been thinking a LOT about this past year. In fact, up until six months ago, I was so torn about making this decision, I finally made an ultimatum with God: I was going to move home or He was going to make it very clear that I should do something else.

(One may question the sanity of making ultimatums with God, but I think my promise in exchange was pretty fair: He would give me my answer, I would do as He directed, no questions asked.)

 

Needless to say, I got my answer, so here we are, just a little over a month before I return to my beautiful Ozarks and I find myself (as one always does in this situation) with a million bittersweet feelings beginning to arise.

 

 

Of course, I should probably use this blog post to answer the big question: why?

Why are you moving back to your tiny town in Arkansas when living in the big city means you are closer to so many more opportunities? Opportunities as an artist, options as a young single woman looking for her Mr. Right, and career paths for a young working professional?

All of these reasons are actually why I’m moving home.

 

Now, I’m a very goal oriented person. (I LIVE for January 1 when I can make my next set of New Year’s Resolutions and I am a complete planning nerd.) I currently have three goals in my life and they are growth, strengthening family, and finding a career that I love. Over the past year, I have been taking a good look at each of these goals, and I began to realize that staying in Boston was not going to help me reach these goals. Here’s why:

 

 

Growth:

I am a firm believer that God will simultaneously lead us to where we are needed and where we will grow the most. Now, I still don’t know why God guided me to move to Boston three years ago, and that’s something that I am admittedly frustrated about (give me my answers, dangit!), but I do see that this has been a growing experience for me. In the past six months, however, it has become increasingly clear that I have learned what Boston was meant to teach me and that if I do not move on, I will face stagnation and ugh… I *cringe* at the thought of that.

 

Family:

My family has always been and will always be my number one priority. And I am referring to my current family, as well as the family I will one day have. I want to be closer to the people who matter the very most to me and most of those people currently reside in Bentonville, Arkansas.

As for finding my future Mr.? I’m surprisingly not too worried about this. It will all work out better than I expect it to. It always does.

 

Career Opportunities:

If I’ve learned anything these past three years, it’s that you only live once and right now I need to take advantage of being young and having relatively few responsibilities. It’s time to take the leap, and the only way I am comfortable doing that (and where I can afford to do that) is where I have a safety net… and a cheap cost of living…

 

 

So who knows what the future holds? Only God does, but right now, that’s good enough for me.

And if you’re in Boston, you’ve got me until the end of July, so let’s hang out, shoot, create, and make this the best month and a half yet of my life here in New England!