2012 – Jamee Takes DC

2009 – Jamee Goes Abroad

I started a blog in 2012 when I first moved to DC, mostly to keep my family up to date on everything.  Instagram was still new, Facebook only had “Likes,” and I was 23 moving across the country.

Studying abroad in Spain or traveling on a two-week trip were completely different than moving across the country on your own.  I laughed, I cried, I met people from all over the US who had very interesting takes on what “normal” was, and I realised that working for the government wasn’t going to be everything I had hoped it could provide.  But I carved out a group of friends, networked like crazy, joined a competitive karaoke league which to this day is one of the truest things I could have done, and at the end of the day can say I truly loved living in DC. Click here to read about how Jamee Takes DC as my intro to really making the move on my own.  No set classes or forced friends bonding together over being away from home for the first time; my real first adventure living in a new world with no return date.

If we do want to adventure back to the time where I showed up in Spain and documented my thoughts while still navigating a European keyboard (and therefore having no idea how to capitalise ANYTHING… apologies now)… feel free to read them here at Jamee Goes Abroad.  I was 19, a junior at UCLA, and I felt on top of the world while also realising I was experiencing the best part (studying abroad) of the best part of my life (college).  Oddly enough, 7 years later and I still stay in touch with some of those people… you go through a change when you study abroad, and regardless of who or what was there, you cherish them for years to come.

So there you have it… a look down memory lane to the early days of me sharing my every thought on living in Spain, traveling all over Europe, and thinking myself invincible.  And a more somber “oh crap when did I become an adult?  Am I an adult? I am not ready to be an adult” of moving to DC.  Then of course I had to bump it up a notch and move to Asia and live on my own in my own place for the first time in my life.  Always outdoing myself I suppose…