New Country, New Home, New Relationship Status

Our bags were packed and we were about to start on one of the many adventures of our lives. Thankfully Nick and I had each other. Our move to Virginia was definitely stepping into unfamiliar territory, but we were excited and had been anticipating this move for a while. We got settled in and the first thing we realized was that all our friends were miles away. We loved hanging out with each other, but we knew we needed to get plugged into community. 

This hadn’t been a challenge for us previously. For some, this happens when they go off to college, but for each of us we had immediate connections with a group of friends because we both played on a team at college. It was especially easy because that new group of friends had a lot of the same interests, even beyond the sport we played together.

Two Suitcases and a Backpack

When I was 18 I moved from a small town outside of Vancouver, Canada to Lynchburg, Virginia to go to Liberty University. I was recruited to play on their NCAA Div.1 Field Hockey team and was super excited, but I also did not know a single person.

Words That Cause Confusion

Moving to Lynchburg, Virginia for university from Vancouver, Canada was not a huge culture shock for me; I think it was more shocking for the people I met. First of all, I didn’t realize I had an accent until everyone I talked to pointed it out. I can’t really hear the difference, but people think words that have “ou” in them are where they hear the accent the strongest. I can’t tell you how many times my friends would make me say “house” or “out” and then just start laughing.