So, Friday February 17th, was the day I left Seattle for good. Could not sleep the entire night. Lot of crying, lot of anticipation, lot of weirdness. Finally, when I left “home”, left my keys in the drop box, it started raining, I started feeling a little excited. Like the acceptance finally seemed to kick in. The whole time in the cab to airport, I was just grabbing more memories of the city. By the time I finally boarded the flight to Cincinnati, I was half dead. I just wanted to sleep and not talk to anyone or do anything else for the next 4 hours. But of course, as usual, I could not sleep for most part. But just in this one instance, that indeed turned out to be a blessing.

There was a girl, sitting next to me. we started talking. I told her how I was going to Cincinnati for the first time. Was moving from Seattle and that I did not know anything about the city or did not know anyone from the city. I was listening to my music and suddenly, after some time, I see her scribbling something on her notepad. I did not quite get what she was writing. After a while, I asked her what she was writing and she replied saying she is making a list of places for me to eat from and things to do in Cincinnati. I mean, I told her that I really appreciate it. She left her phone number on there and was like if you ever want to hang out or something, let me know. It did not end there. She waited for me while I was trying to get my bags and get out of the airplane. We walked together to the baggage claim area. She asked me how are you going to get home? And I was just going to get a cab (which would have been very expensive). Her mom was going to come pick her up, and she insisted that they can drop me off. I said no several times but she kept insisting and she said it is not a problem. She and her mom, the sweetest people I have ever met, they dropped me (and my three big bags, one cabin bag and one backpack) off to my apartment. This goes down in history as the sweetest thing any stranger has ever done for me. Just look at how sweet the list was and also my cute apartment!

I was greeted by a fleet of stairs because I chose the first floor studio. I thought it would be safer if it would not be on the ground floor. But of course, I did not think how difficult it would be to carry all my stuff upstairs. Fun fact : A few days later, post returning from work, I was greeted with five big packages that I had couriered here (along with the mattress). I went upstairs without touching the bags and started crying (of course, that is the first thing that I do anytime anything happens). After 10-15 minutes of self pity, I went downstairs and rolled over the luggage up the stairs. I have realized that about me recently. I need to cry it out and absorb and be overwhelmed for a while and once I am done, I am good to go. Apart from that, there is a hot water problem. Don’t want to go into too much details but I have 16 mins to take a hot bath everyday. And if you know me at all, it is unacceptable. It was funny. When the leasing office said that’s all they can do, I started roaming around in the community, interviewing other people about the hot water situation. They said, yeah, you just have to work your way around it. I thought about moving but it did not make sense considering this is how it is in the entire town. Also, I had not ordered my mattress for quite some time, I created my bed with the three blankets I had (considering I lost my pillow too while boarding the flight). And of course, the grocery store is too far. Started ordering groceries online.

Now that I have listed all my problems, I also have to say, it is beautiful too. I go on walks and I feel so good. Breathing all the good oxygen in, basically you can meditate anywhere. There is a gym too. Been there twice. Hopefully, will go more the coming week. I am going through this phase, the “I’ll do it from tomorrow” phase. I saw ducks in the neighborhood. Very pet friendly. A lot of cute dogs. Beautiful sunsets, and a hell lot of sunshine.

Coming to the new job, it is very different. It is a super small startup and they are still growing their team here (which means it is just me and my manager for now :p). They gifted me two small baskets with fruits and some cute snacks, which was good. Post that, I got a call from the recruiter, saying that my manager has a family emergency and he won’t be able to come to the office. So, he will drop off the laptop and the keys to the office at my apartment :p You can imagine how weird it is to open the office and let yourself in on your first day. But I had to go since I had no wifi in my house till then. But otherwise, other people are good, very sweet. Work is challenging. It is in Go. A language that I am not familiar with at all. There are just 20 people in the company, so I guess there is a lot of workload coming my way. All prepped for it 🙂

On the friends side, I went to a meetup event. It was cool apart from the fact that everyone was super old compared to me. They celebrated Mardigras. That’s when I learned about it. And I learned that they get a cake with a small plastic baby in it. And the person who finds the baby is said to have good luck and has to bring the cake for the next year. Very interesting. Also, I joined a “Jain” group in Cincinnati. We had a meetup yesterday. We were 9 people and we went for bowling. It was fun. I have got better at bowling it seems. And I was happy because I guess this is the second time I have seen Indians here (The first was when I went to get a Subway and the server there was from Kalol, Gujarat). I guess, the group will keep meeting probably once in a month or so. Also, I kept in touch with the friend from the flight. In fact, we went for lunch and ice cream (after the two pints of ice cream I ate since my friend from Seattle sent it to me as a token of good luck for the new job) today and it was amazing. She is super impressive. Apparently reads like 425 books in a year (that’s what her Kindle says). She knows so much about the city and wants to be a writer. In fact, we are probably going to meet for Dungeons & Dragons (only heard about in shows as of now) because she wants to get ideas about her characters through the game. Super interesting!

Apart from all this, I think I have to admit I have loved spending so much time with myself over the last 10 days. I think I am pretty used to being on my own. I actually love it on most days. I have loved every bit of it here. Danced several times in the house, watched comedy movies, unpacking, long walks, getting food by myself. Everything has been amazing! There is something special about new beginnings. They give you a chance to redefine who you are, think and walk in a different direction. I guess I was too scared to be here and in the middle of it, I did not gather how exciting this journey could be. I am looking forward to exploring the city, meeting different people and living the kind of life, where I go for walks and hear little birds chirping and making my day!

Categories: Journal

Feya Shah

Living life one day at a time and on the side, telling you about it!