This summer I was fortunate to work at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio which required me to move for three months. Now, as a native Pennsylvanian I was extremely reluctant to move to Ohio, even if for only the summer, snobbish I know. Having lived in both Philadelphia and in Pittsburgh, I have experience both “cultures” of Pennsylvania and love them both dearly. I was unsure of moving out of the state for this new experience but I am so glad I did!
As mentioned earlier, I turned my nose up at the thought of living in Sandusky, Ohio. There is kind of a snobbery that Pennsylvanians have against Ohio and I was totally part of that group. I really didn’t think there was that much to do or much of a culture. However, I proved myself wrong. Now, the area I was in was particularly rural so there was not that much to do, but I was pleasantly surprised by Cleveland and Cincinnati. Both cities are very hip and young and filled with great places to eat and see and have lots of local breweries to taste. Also, I had thought that living in Pittsburgh I had experienced the Midwest culture but I was wrong. Being actually in the Midwest is different than being near the Midwest. For the most part, people are noticeably more friendly and family oriented. It was also neat to hear the differences in phonetics and accents of how people say different words, not only in everyone who was a native Ohioan but myself! There were quite a few words that I didn’t’t realize I said differently than them or even referred to items of different things. If I hadn’t taken an internship out of state I would have never known these things .
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This summer took me four hours from school and my extended family and nine hours away from my family, the farthest and longest I have ever gone with out them. Being that far really put me outside of my comfort zone and forced me to do a lot of things by myself. I moved to somewhere I had never been and back all by myself. I also experienced some car trouble while being there which meant that I had to work with dealerships, insurance companies, and paperwork by myself. I probably would have still done this by myself at home, but this absolutely forced me to do it without my parents guidance and coaching.
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The biggest perk of moving out of state was meeting all the people I would have never met if I hadn’t gone. I now know people from Ohio, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, Jamaica, Turkey, and tons of other places. I am so fortunate to have been able to meet each one of these individuals. Each has given me a new perspective on something. I also like to joke that now I have lots of couches to crash on when I decide to do a road trip. If I had stayed in Pennsylvania for the summer there is a possibility that I could have met people from other places but most likely what would have happened is that I would have ended up hanging out with the same people from the same place I am from.
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Given the chance to go out of state again, I would take it in a heart beat. I learned so much about myself professionally and personally and would strongly encourage anyone who is on the fence about moving to a new area to do it. You will grow and learn so much not only about the new area yourself in but about yourself too.
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