From Illinois to Nashville

It’s crazy to me that I moved to Nashville over six years ago. It’s been a really good move for me and I have learned so much about myself over the last several years. I am so thankful for all of the ways I have grown and matured. But why did I decide to move here? Well…

Back in Illinois, my sister and I had a fully prepared meal delivery business, Simply Rooted, where we sourced our ingredients from local farms. Wholesome and nutritious food was very important to us. The business did really well at first, but overtime, it became apparent that our price point was too high for the area we lived in, and we didn’t want to sacrifice the quality of our ingredients for the sake of “making it work”. We really believed in our product and we weren’t going to drop below our standards. So we decided to close up shop.

I was pretty lost after this. I was young, mid 20s, and I had it drilled in my head that that business would be end game for us - that we would eventually be shipping all over the country in due time. Well, I was wrong - haha. When the business closed, we had some offers from people to buy it, but we declined. I was hopeful we could open it again somewhere else someday.

I then found myself working five different jobs at once. I was cleaning stalls at an equine facility in the morning, doing sales/marketing for a medical clinic, serving at a high end restaurant at night, making pizzas at a local pizza restaurant, and working at a boutique on the weekends - talk about burnout! I wasn’t working five jobs because I had to. I was just so used to going “pedal to the metal” and sadly, I believed my worth came from how much and how hard I worked. When we had our business, we worked most days from sun up to sun down and even into the midnight hours very often. At that time, I took great pride in overworking myself - trust me I have learned my lesson on that.

The other major thing that happened around the same time was the ending of an eight year, very toxic relationship with a cowboy that I was engaged to. We never should have been together as long as we were. When I finally cut the cord (after years of lying and narcissistic abuse from him AND controlling behavior and paranoia from me) about a month before we were to be married, some people were very confused and very upset. I was one of those people who hid all of our problems to make us look perfect, so my family and friends didn’t know the severity and depth of our problems. Both of us were a mess - I was just as much to blame. There are at least two players in every game, am I right?

After all of this, I was completely depressed and at a loss of what to do with my life. I was truly having an identity crisis. It’s not that I didn’t have a loving family and good friends in Illinois - I did and I still do. I just didn’t have the business with my sister or the longterm relationship that connected me to the horse industry, which I loved - and at that time my identity was in those things. But, what I did have was a little bit of faith that God was going to point me in the right direction.

When I was cleaning horse stalls and listening to podcasts, Nashville started coming up. In random conversations, Nashville came up. When I would listen to music, Nashville was referenced. I didn’t know WHY Nashville. I didn’t really know what was there, other than broadway and some pretty terrain. But I was listening to God. I was listening to his direction. So that’s where I went. And I am so glad that I did.

I have matured, developed, healed, and learned so much since I moved (more on that later). For that, I am grateful. I appreciate what God has done for me in Nashville…very much. And my appreciation for Illinois/home has grown so much as well.

So that’s why I moved here! :)