Before Ray and I were married, I was given an opportunity to move to Minneapolis, Minnesota

by the Walt Disney Company for a sales role.

I had never lived outside of California.

I had never been a person who worked in sales.

I had never owned my own house.

I'd never lived in a place where I didn't know a single person.

And the prospect of this move was exciting because of this chance to grow my career and

exciting because of this opportunity to do something I hadn't before.

But that was the same reason why it was scary.

I didn't know that I had what it took to do the job well and I definitely was unsure of

my ability to thrive in an environment without anyone that I knew around me in a world where

I'd have to take care of myself.

And I can remember at the beginning of that journey, the way that it was a stumble to

get my feet under me, to get into routine and to reach out and create friends and get

connected to a social scene that made it not feel so strange.

And the work of having it end up being one of the more important years of my adult life

and how I become who I am was a process that started rocky.

Like one of the first Fridays of me being in town, I decided that I would go see a movie

by myself.

And as a thing that I'd always said I wanted to do but because of all the other options

that always existed was just never something I ever indulged in.

Here I now had this chance.

...