Bloom Where You Are Planted
I am no stranger to being the “new guy.” I have laboriously transplanted myself multiple times across different cities and states for different career paths and interests. These strenuous moves came with a lot of sacrifices: severing ties with budding friendships, accepting the state of never feeling “moved in” and “settled” into a living space, acquiring the minimalist lifestyle, giving up on short-term goals and comfortable routines, and increasing the distance between beloved family. I have trained myself over many years in uprooting to embrace the challenges and feelings that come with moving. The feelings of worry: Will I be safe here? Can I find joy and happiness here? Feelings of doubt: Did I make the right move? Would staying be better?
Ultimately, these moves happened because I was looking for my sense of belonging and home.
Will I fit in and belong here? Can I make a difference here?
With every adventurous chapter of my life, I have learned what my values, beliefs, and preferences are. According to the summary and repeated patterns: I value natural, outdoor green spaces. I believe in lifelong learning and the “power of play”: each human needs (and deserves) unstructured leisure, recreation, and learning opportunities to optimize their well-being. I prefer to work in a career that celebrates these aspects, and I also prefer to do this work in a way that promotes sustainability and hope for the future. The Elizabeth River Trail Foundation allows me to put my values and beliefs into wholesome, rewarding, meaningful work.
Everywhere I have planted myself, I have attempted to thrive and blossom; to give my best efforts and to feel proud of my place within the community. I have now found myself back in Virginia, with a great and loving support system full of individuals that I am so grateful to call my family, and I have earned myself an integral role within the Norfolk community that allows me to better my neighbors in the area my family and I call home. I have found my personal sense of belonging.
With the deepest roots I have ever grown in my adult life, now stretched as long as a 10.5-mile walking path in Norfolk, I intend to bloom where I have been planted.
