Soul Searching in Portland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ui586K1ZMI

Have you ever traveled to a new city and felt right at home? That is exactly what went through my mind as soon as my Alaskan Airlines flight landed on Saturday, January 26th. I will never be able to truly string together a series of words to describe or explain the euphoria that ran through my body. When my eyes saw the fog and gloomy weather that I was in for the weekend, it did not discourage me from having the best time I could. In fact, all I could think of was how "perfect" Portland was to what I envisioned.

Several people were vocal about their disagreements of me traveling to Portland. It wasn't just the thought of a 21-year-old woman walking through Portland alone, that they urged me to forgo my trip. It was also the fact that they could not fathom what went on in my head that would push me into taking a solo-trip to the city of roses. They were completely baffled at my decision, and sometimes I was too. There was no concrete reason as to why I wanted to go desperately, other than I wanted to. I felt I had to.

I could have just told people that I was a major Grimm fan and I wanted to see all of the popular locations they filmed at. But to me, it was more than that. It was more than the fact that I also read a book set in Portland that inspired me to always have it running in my head.

That being said, I didn't go to Portland with the sole idea that I was soul-searching. I wanted to envision myself in the city, and see how they lived, how I would have to adapt. It sounds silly to think I went to a city for the first time in my life, already with a plan to live there. But as I walked around the streets and roamed the quaint neighborhoods, I found myself learning more about me. I started to learn what truly drew me into the city and why I felt that it was the place I needed to be in.

Portland was the opposite of my current lifestyle. The city was dark and dreary, the complete opposite of what Los Angeles represented as bright and sunny. Everyone I met on my trip was full of genuine kindness and was chill with their lives. I was astonished with how they lived, when I was always accustomed to a fast-paced lifestyle. I am not entirely sure if Los Angeles had that effect on me, or if it was just ingrained in my personality, but it was how I was.

The city managed to soothe my soul in the day and a half I explored, as opposed to the whole life I've lived in Los Angeles. It was a breath of fresh air.

I'm still not entirely convinced that I would uproot my entire life on a whim to move to a city I barely know. But I do want to say that it helped me learn more about me, and for that I will be forever grateful for the opportunity I have to be able to travel so easily to Portland.

I still have a lot of planning and decision-making to do to prepare myself if I ever decide to move forward with my plan. It won't happen in just a blink of an eye. There will be months of doubting myself and questioning the choices I make. I will be frustrated with job choices and apartment hunting. Then the blues will kick in knowing that I would be all alone in the city.

But for right now, I'm quite satisfied with my last trip and am definitely planning on a sequel to further get me acquainted to the life I can have.