If you’re following me on Instagram, you’ll notice that my feed has been looking a lot different lately. We moved! Really far. In December, Charles and I sold all the furniture we owned. On January 1st, we hopped in our car and started the trip from Oklahoma City to Washington, D.C. Talk about a fresh start to the year! Moving to D.C. was so much more stressful than I anticipated, but also incredibly rewarding.
I wish I had the systems in place to be able to focus on my blog writing goals in the midst of a big change like that, but you guys, I just didn’t have the energy. Perhaps it’s because I make writing a blog post into something bigger in my mind than it actually is in real life. Or perhaps it’s just that it’s a lot of work and I don’t have the habits and practice yet.
I found that the more time went on, the harder it was to actually come back to this happy little space. I was pretty focused on saying goodbye (at least for now) to the people we love and establishing ourselves in a very different environment. But now that we’re feeling more settled in, and I’ve had a chance to reevaluate what I want this space to look like and what my goals for it are, I’m coming back feeling refreshed and excited.
I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the move so I thought I’d answer the big ones here.
What on earth made you decide moving to D.C. would be a good idea?
Besides possible insanity? Grad school! And career options. Charles wants to work in the field of international relations and unfortunately there’s not a lot of international relating going on in Oklahoma. Washington D.C. is the best place for both grad school and any future jobs he would be interested in, so when he got into his top school we decided to make the move.
We’re SUPER bummed to be way farther way from all of our friends and family, who are primarily in Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Missouri. Making the decision to leave wasn’t easy. But ultimately we knew that we’d have a lot more opportunities here and that it would be an enjoyable experience for us. But don’t worry. We applied for a travel credit card and have been working on accumulating some free miles.
Do you like it in D.C?
We LOVE it here. Seriously. We live in a great neighborhood in Arlington, VA, just across the river from D.C. Everyone we’ve met has been incredibly helpful and friendly. And there are beautiful dogs everywhere to smile at and occasionally pet.
What do you miss about Oklahoma?
Besides our family and friends? And the waaaayyyy lower cost of living? We miss our church a whole lot, and also incredibly convenient Chick-fil-a’s everywhere. There are some here, but there aren’t any close to our home and not as many drive-thrus.
What have you guys been up to since you got there?
The first month was a whirlwind of adjustment that involved getting parking permits, registering our car, finding a nearby grocery store, remembering which metro station to get off at for work, establishing healthy routines, and so on. I shared about a lot of it on my Instagram stories. Check out my story highlights if you’d like to see more about what it’s like moving to D.C!
Let me know if you have any other questions about our move, living in the D.C. area, or anything else and I’d love to answer those in future posts!
April Goals
I try to set goals every month to keep myself focused on the things that matter to me. I usually don’t quite get it right. Usually I err on the side of thinking I can do more than what’s realistic or feeling overwhelmed and not setting goals at all. But each time I DO set goals, I get a little bit better at it and feel like I’m taking steps to make my life feel more intentional.
Moving to D.C. definitely put a wrench in a lot of my goals, but I knew it was a season that I just needed to focus on getting us here and settled in. Now that we are (sort of) feeling that way, I can’t wait to dive back in to some of my goals.
It’s a fresh month, so let’s do some dreaming!
I love Natalie Bacon’s post on goal setting. I like to use her eight life categories to give me focus and help me realize if I’m neglecting a particular area of my life.
This month I have one BIG goal (writing). As a result, I chose goals for the other categories that were slightly challenging but realistic with my big goal in mind. Here they are!
Environment
Hang the remaining pictures in the apartment
Career
Write 50,000 words of blog content
Health
Eat 5 servings of veggies a day
Relationships
Connect more online by actually commenting
Money
Stick to our food budget. Moving to D.C. has definitely changed our budget a lot!
Personal development
Finish at least 2 of the nonfiction books I’ve started and haven’t finished yet
Fun
Start Friday Adventures. More on this soon!
Service
Sign up to be pet foster parents
Big goals in your neck of the woods?
Reading what others’ goals are is one of the most fascinating and motivating exercises for me. Did you set any goals this month? I’d love to hear them! Share in the comments!
Do you feel totally lost when it comes to goal setting? I wrote a post with some of my best hard-earned experience here. There’s also a free workbook you can download to help you focus!
What a big move! That’s very exciting and admirable; moving that far is never easy. I hope DC is a beautiful new place to put down some roots! Happy May!
Thanks, Rhiannon! DC has certainly been a beautiful place for roots so far!