#NerdsUnite: Comfort zone be gone!

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Chelsea. She's a newbie to our loverly state of California and is currently trying to find her own voice and find her own way. Gosh, aren't we all??? She's here today to talk about her journey in life, love, and all things nerd.  I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT CHELSEA!!</editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @chelofthesea

So here I am, writing for Talk Nerdy to Me Lover after over 8 months of following the site. In the most fitting fashion, I stumbled upon Jen, and her crazy yet wonderful life just days after my friends convinced (read: pressured) me to create an OkCupid account. You see, I'd been living in the LA area for a few months and wasn't having the best of luck meeting people organically.

A quick rewind might be helpful here. In the summer of 2010 I got an internship out here working for a human rights non-profit and absolutely fell in love – with the weather, the views, the city, the food, the people and most importantly, the work I was doing. So after my internship, I rushed back home to Florida, busted my ass, and finished college a year early. 20+ credit hours, anyone? Yeah, it totally sucked but, when I was hired on staff for the same organization, I knew it was all worth it. So a couple weeks after my last final exam, I packed up my stuff and drove across the country.

As I was saying, I signed up for OkCupid and was ready to go on my first date. Nervous can’t even begin to explain how I was feeling. Solution to that? A Google search of course. What young, single lady wouldn't want to make sure she wasn’t meeting a known serial killer for dinner? I'm extremely paranoid, if that didn't give it away.

I’m sure by this point you’ve forgotten that this is the story of how I stumbled upon TNTML but I’m getting there, promise. You see, what I found was his Twitter account and his most recent tweet happened to be sent to Jen, saying how much he loved the "103 #OkCupid Dates in 9 Months" post. Of course, this piqued my curiosity and I ended up spending the night reading pages and pages of posts, totally forgetting about the snooping I still needed to do! Luckily for me he didn't end up being a modern-day Manson.

Now it has been almost a year since I moved to California, and I know this exactly where I am meant to be. Though, moving to a city where you only know only your co-workers is proving to be quite a challenge, I'm loving every minute. With my year anniversary of living in the Golden State quickly approaching, I am beginning to realize the biggest roadblock in my way is myself. 

Maybe naively, I assumed leaving my comfort zone (I went to college with my three best friends) would force me to do things that made me uncomfortable; therefore, I’d find myself living out adventure after adventure, making tons of friends and living a life you’d see in a movie. Or at least a reality TV show. Instead what I’ve found is that human beings can very quickly create a comfort zone, falling into a routine they might not even realize they're stuck in until it's too late.

So this is my step one. Writing has always been something I love to do. In high school I wrote for my school’s newspaper, but after that I stopped sharing my writing with others. I still spend countless hours pouring my thoughts into journals. But after finding TNTML, I decided this is a community of people I’d love to write alongside. 

Just to give you a little glimpse into who I am: My name is Chelsea, I am 22 years old, I was born and raised in South Florida. I’m known for over-sharing, being sassy and rolling my eyes far too often. I’m overly sentimental yet totally bitter, a complete romantic yet insanely pessimistic about relationships. I feel like people need to know that my mom died just before I was 16 to even have a chance at understanding me. Cooking for one totally bums me out, which might be why I prefer baking. Sweets are meant for sharing! My heart can’t help but love almost everyone, unless of course I can’t stand you. But don't worry, you’ll be able to tell. Everything I think is written all over my face, all of the time. And yes, that does get my in trouble, but I quite literally have no control over it. I can be pretty awkward when meeting new people but ya know, it’s a work in progress. Plus if I’m awkward, at least you have a funny story to tell your friends later.

Overall, I’m forcing myself out of my comfort zone, meeting new people, and finding my niche in this big ol’ city. Pumped to share with you the next year of my life on the west coast.

#nerdsunite

click here to follow Chelsea on twitter!