When I meet people for the first time I typically get asked two questions:
Where are you from? (Apparently my lack of a southern accent is a giveaway) And… What brought you to Nashville?!
Well to answer the first question, I am from Nebraska and very proud of it (GO HUSKERS!) However, with the second question…my answer has changed since moving here a few times from why I thought I moved here to now knowing why I moved here.
Growing up in small (-ish) town in Nebraska I felt that I was supposed to follow the typical trend of graduating college, then get a job, get married, have kids and that’s your life. I never imagined that I would be living in Nashville. Ever. Before I moved here, I was finishing up my second bachelor’s degree in Journalism/Mass Communications. The people that knew me kept telling me to go in to this field and to work in sports and music. They always saw me working in some sort of a career path in country music. Reason being I was often traveling to go see my favorite artists/bands or I was volunteering for and traveling to support our local hockey team. I was earning this degree to work in what I thought was going to be my future dream career.
After graduating, I still never had the thought cross my mind about moving to Nashville. I tried getting a job at a local marketing firm – didn’t get the job – and didn’t really know what to do. Then a girl I had classes with in college, who had already moved to Nashville, contacted me saying she needed a roommate in Nashville and that I just needed to make the move. We talked about it off-and-on and I never really thought much of it. Christmas break rolls around and she came back to Nebraska to visit her family and we decided to meet up for dinner. She sat a HUGE stack of apartment books in front of me and said, “pick one”. I kinda laughed and was like yeah, ok sure. I had grown content with the only life I had ever known. About a month later I had some things come up with friends who proved they weren’t really friends as well as the realization that my job wasn’t a long-term thing I was going to be happy with. It was a sign that things were happening for a reason, a reason to move.
Let’s fast forward two more months, it is now March. Two months after my realizations smacked me in the face. I quit my job, ok let’s be real, I quit my SEVEN jobs. Yes, seven. I packed up my things and started applying for jobs. About a week before I moved, I had an interview with a company that managed fan clubs for artists – which seemed like a dream job on paper. The first question they asked of course was, “What brings you to Nashville?” So I gave them the answer I gave so many others for the last few years, “I want to work in Sports or Music”.
Funny side note, I told the company I didn’t want to invest in a plane ticket there and back for a 30-60 minute interview if I wasn’t guaranteed a job and that I needed to save my money for my actual move. So I proposed the idea of doing my interview via Skype. They were actually on board and thought it was to my benefit that I offered them this suggestion because they never would of thought of that. So I did my skype interveiw in the kitchen of my mom’s house….wearing pajama pants and a nice dress shirt.
I got the job.
Things seemed to be falling in to place. I was offered the job about three days before I planned to leave. If I had not been offered the job I roughly had $800 to my name and planned to take whatever job I could find when I got here.
Although, that job did not work out and a few others along the way have failed as well. I still love sports and I still love music but after trying for so long I realized that just because I am a fan of both of these things does not mean that a career in those fields are what’s best for me. This town is great for both sports and music. Nashville is blessed with a great hockey team and this girl loves some hockey! It goes without saying how blessed Nashville is with talent of country music singers/songwriters/musicians. It’s a dreamers town. It’s a dream town but it will also tear your dreams down in a heartbeat.
Let’s bring things up to current day. I am realizing I moved because I needed a change. I needed to grow. I needed to learn. And that is exactly what I have done while here in Nashville.
I have had some really good moments and I have experienced my lowest moments in life here but I have a good group of people that I surround myself with. I have gotten to experience so many things I wouldn’t have experienced had I not moved (I have attended the CMA’s more than once…for free…WHAT!?) I may not be working in sports or music but I am now loving my new why.
So what brought me to Nashville you may ask? I moved here to learn and to grow, to experience new things and a new way of life.
Thank you, Nashville. I am forever changed because of you and I wouldn’t change one thing.