I am from a small town in southeastern Connecticut called Essex. This is where I lived and learned, the place where I was raised. It was the tiniest bubble of a world, and as I moved into high school, I dreamed of moving to a city where there was culture, nightlife, and especially live music. In going to College at Loyola, I moved halfway across the country to New Orleans, LA. In doing this I entered a completely different world in many ways. Different weather, different geography, different culture, and a different social environment than I was used to. City people and town people are very different.
In moving to New Orleans and starting a new life I carried many things with me. One of the concrete things I brought was my music gear, which really helped to keep me grounded at first when I had just moved here and had no friends. I brought my drums, guitars, my amplifier, clothes, pictures of family, pillows, and shoes. But I also brought my hopes with me. All I have ever wanted to do is create music with people and share it with the world. I brought the hope of making something of myself in a completely new environment. But I also brought fear and doubt. I feared that I was not good enough to be a musician in a big city, I feared that no one would want to play music with me, but these were lot of foolish worries in hindsight.
But what affected me the most was the immense feeling of loneliness that I felt when I moved so far away from home. It is a difficult thing to know that your friends lives are continuing on without you. They are experiencing new things, meeting new people, and entering a new world that I am not a part of. I can't help but feel as though these experiences not shared have been and will continue to break apart the old friendships I have.
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