My Story...or at least part of it
I realized today that a lot of my friends may not know how I got where I am today..and by "where I am today" I don't mean the comforts of my bedroom at home. No, I mean living in Tennessee and going to school in Kentucky in general.
I was talking to my friend Annie who I met at KARH back in February. (For those that don't know, KARH=Kentucky Association of Residence Halls...state conference was the first weekend in February) Anywho, she's headed to California soon for a conference and I mentioned that I'm originally from California. She seemed kind of surprised when I said that...then again, this was all over Facebook chat, so I don't really know if she was or not. But she asked how I ended up at WKU for school and live in Nashville if I was born/raised in California. I started thinking, and realized that quite a few of my friends probably don't know that I'm from California. Yeah, I mention it in passing sometimes, and my high school friends definitely know, but a lot of my college friends might not. So here's the story.
My dad works for Nissan. Headquarters used to be located in California, but in November of 2005 (I think) they announced that they would be relocating to Tennessee. They already had a plant in Smyrna, so I guess it kind of made sense. Anywho, long story short, we had until my 16th birthday to decide if we were moving or not. We couldn't find job opportunities close to home for Dad, so Mom and Dad decided we'd move. Mom had been gung-ho on the idea of moving since the relocation was still in rumor stage. I on the other hand was not because we had moved before my freshman year of high school, and they had promised they wouldn't move me during high school. That, and it was Tennessee of all places. 2000 miles away from "home." Hillbillies. Bare feet. Etc. (I ended up doing an entire speech my senior year about the stereotypes, but that's another story for another post).
So, we moved. We got the keys to our house on like July 2, 2006, had the carpet replaced, painted, I sliced my foot open on a piece of glass, didn't get stitches, and the moves came a week later to help us move all the stuff in.
Keep in mind that I swore from my 16th birthday on that I was going back to California for college. There was no way I was staying here...or so I thought. Then I got sucked into forensics at Ravenwood...and then heard that WKU had a forensics team...and thought I might continue competitive speaking (until I found out that the WKU team takes control of your social life basically). So I wound up applying at WKU, Belmont, UTK and MTSU...and ended up at WKU for Honors.
I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. I don't always know what the reason is for specific events in life, but I know it happens for a reason one way or another. Had we not moved, I'd be in college studying to be an English teacher, not studying corporate/organizational communications and being an RA headed for student affairs after undergrad was over. I wouldn't have gotten the opportunity to help plan a state conference...to be conference co-chair, or get a state board position for KARH. I literally wouldn't be who I am today.
So yeah. That's a part of my story. And don't worry, I'll post tidbits of my speech from senior year someday. It was a good one and absolutely hysterical.
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