Leah McCann Smith | Writer & Editor

In just one week and a day, I will be moving to New York City – the “Big Apple, the center of the world, where all the magic happens, the place where dreams come true.” But more importantly, in my young, eager perspective, I’m moving to the land of opportunity. Where I have finally decided to take a leap in the early stages of my advertising career to a city that will not only challenge me academically. It will challenge me physically, mentally and you better believe emotionally.

I have lived in North Carolina for 22 years. Sure, I got some distance from my hometown (Apex, N.C.) for a while as a student at both Appalachian State University and as a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill. I even spent a whole summer in New York City in 2012. But at the end of the day, home never felt far away. And for the first time in 22 years, I’m leaving it all behind.

Moving (the physical act of moving all your crap) sucks. Moving (redirecting your life and personal goals based on a locational change) is awesome. It’s exhilarating to know that in just a week, I will be embarking on the greatest journey of my life thus far. It’s terrifying knowing that everything I know will be turned completely upside down.

I’m sad to be leaving a few things behind, as one must expect. I am blessed to have had the most amazing friends on this planet. Through my time growing up in Apex, N.C. there are two ladies (you know who you are) that have had my back since the time we hung out on the courtyard, at Shepherds Vineyard pool, and most importantly, the many nights at Target when there was (literally) nothing else to do. I will miss my neighbor from home, who I’ve been lucky enough to stay close to even as a 20-something. And I will definitely miss the friends I have grown closer to over the past few years and even the past few months.

As old and sketchy as it has become, there’s something magical in my ’98 Jeep Grand Cherokee. And I will miss that thing more than it, as an inanimate object, will ever know.

I will miss my cat. I will miss how she never (and I mean never) leaves me alone for a second. I’m contemplating scooping her up and taking her with me. If only there was a way to get that past my dad…

I will miss Eva Perry Public Library, where I almost always had a book overdue because it took everything in my power to finally give it back, even if I was finished reading it.

I will miss my beach house. Oh god, I will miss my beach house…

But most importantly, I will miss my family. I will miss my two loving parents, who have stuck by me through…we’ll just say it was a lot. Through the hour-long drives to CASL soccer practices in Raleigh, the angsty-teen decisions to teepee a neighbor’s house and narrowly escape a mark on my record, and through the weekends in college when I would come home and mom INSISTED on me bringing a load of laundry because she knows how much I hate doing it. I will miss my sisters, though we are all in different places anyway, I will no longer have the flexibility to go see on a weekend.

Okay, that’s done. Now the good stuff.

I have never felt such a mix of excitement, happiness, eagerness, anxiety and restless energy than I have felt this week as I sit on my computer writing a blog instead of doing the real things I need to be doing to prepare for this move. But I don’t care. I will get it done when the time is right and I’ve had enough coffee in my system for that day.

The real question as I start packing the “essentials” (but let’s be real, we know I’m going to pack 90% clothes and 10% other crap)…How the hell am I supposed to get it all in just 6 suitcases? This is going to be a challenge.

I am so excited for the future and I can’t wait to share my journey with the world. So cheers. Here’s to taking a leap, battling hesitation and just picking up to go.