I’m not quite sure what it is about going around the country and becoming familiar with different cities that I love so much, but it’s definitely a great gig. I used to look at my friend’s posts on facebook with envy as they listed all the cities they would be traveling through as part of their job, whether it be talking to clients or recruiting or whatever, I was jealous.  After all, there are a lot of major cities in the United States. I’m fortunate to live next to the largest, New York City, to have gone to school in one of the oldest, Philadelphia, but now I’m broadening my horizons, both literally and figuratively. Now, I am that person, no longer envious, yet not tired of the constant need to fly. TSA be damned, they haven’t ruined anything for me and my mustache yet.

I’m currently stuck in Arlington, Texas. It’s a “little” suburb where the Dallas Cowboys’ home is, stuck right between Fort Worth on the west and Dallas on the east. I always thought it was silly, “Dallas-Fort Worth” area, but once you’re here and you’re moving around between these 2 major cities in just 30 minutes, you really do learn to appreciate them.  I’m finally becoming comfortable enough to travel around without a GPS, a rarity for myself really, and I’m learning the names of landmarks, it’s really bizarre.  I have one more week of training here and still so much to do! See Cowboy’s Stadium, visit Six Flags, even go back into Dallas and see what other fun places I can check out other than the Dallas Stars Arena and it’s surrounding area.

This happened when I was in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, Indiana, it happens everywhere I end up being sent.  I learn. Not just what I’m expected to, but about the city, about the people and the landmarks, the local dialects, the flow of traffic. It’s those small details that once you learn, you start to feel like you fit in, people start to accept you more, and those one-off conversations you have with people in passing are a bright spot in you day.  “Went to Pappadeaux? I love that place,” I mentioned in passing a woman in the hall of my hotel after her casual but slightly concerned “hello”. Just that smallest input helped defuse what would otherwise be a tense situation of a strange, mustached man approaching her in the hall. She responded with something about how she too loved it and most likely ordered too much and we shared a laugh before I moved along to the elevators.

And this is more the norm these days than the exception. As I go around the country, learning small things about each place I go, I become comfortable in my environment and I feel as though my environment becomes comfortable around me.