Megan's Mind: Comfort Zones
Bust A Move are posts focused on what Tyler and Megan are thinking and learning before, during and after their move to another country.
Megan's Mind: Comfort in leaving my Comfort Zone for Bali
Comfort zones make me uncomfortable. I was the kid who moved every two years (no, my parents weren’t military), so I never settled long enough to feel completely comfortable in my surroundings. As soon as I began establishing long-term friendships and hometown pride, we'd pick up and move across country. This nomadic lifestyle lasted until I graduated college, when I made Portland my permanent home, met Tyler, bought a house and started answering the frequent and previously uncomfortable question of “Where are you from?” with a simple “Portland.”
When you move a lot, you get put in uncomfortable situations. Situations like getting asked dozens of questions by people less interested in your answers and more engaged with determining if you’re a cool kid or a weirdo. Like getting into a lot of trouble in the deep South for not responding to your teacher with “yes, ma’am.” Like ending up in a Pacific NW farm town with a Georgia accent, and being the only person not wearing Birkenstocks at your high school.
At the root of these uncomfortable situations, there’s something exciting and eye opening that I miss. Each of these experiences in a new place was a learning opportunity for me—it shaped who I am today and left me yearning for cultural discovery.
Part of the reason why I love to travel is being introduced to another person’s way of life and discovering something new—like smelling durian (spoiler alert: it smells like sulfuric ass.) And not to derail my thought, but as I wrote that last sentence my auto correct told me that "durian" is not a word—which leads me to my point. What we're able to learn living exclusively in our hometown is so small in comparison to what we could learn if we all got a little uncomfortable and left it. I'm ready to trade in my shiny Granny Smith and get acquainted with something a little more exotic...probably not durian again, though.
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