Through all of the excitement in my life lately with the move to Portland, I’ve sort of forgotten to leave behind a bit of advice for all of you that are still going to be stuck in this black hole of a town.
For one, it is important to remember the people that surround you. Though I loathe Fort Wayne with every fragment of my being, the people that have come around over the years are what have made this town bearable for so long. If you decide to leave, remember the importance of keeping in contact with the people who mean the world to you. Even if you are 2500 miles away, those people will always, ALWAYS be there for you and this is important not to forget.
Along those same lines, the importance of family truly comes into play. As many of you know, the last five months I have been sleeping from couch to couch, living out of a book bag and a garbage bag full of clothes. I have barely had the chance to be around my family. My boyfriend traveled to Portland last week to work his new job before we drove out there and he left me his car for the week. This allowed me to spend some much needed time with my family and it granted me the chance to really show them how much I appreciated them. I woke up at 6:30 each morning to have breakfast with my little sister before she went off to school. Have I been immensely exhausted? Hell yeah I have, but every sleep deprived moment was worth these little breakfast gatherings.
Another thing, instead of complaining all of the time; make the best of your surroundings. I know that Fort Wayne does not have much to offer, but this is in part because of the lack of enthusiasm of its inhabitants. The town is trying, it really is. Embrace this instead of complaining about it.
While at school, please try to make yourself available to people. This is one thing that I have learned over the course of the past two semesters. Even something as simple as documenting the goings on at the smoke hut has allowed me to be a more open, receptive person to the individuals around me. I have made several new friends because of this place and, even if you don’t smoke, you can find something similar. I have taken away so much knowledge because of these people and, still, I know that these are friends that I am going to keep.
If you have no family, if you have no friends, and if you do not want to embrace campus life in any facet what so ever, pick up a hobby. I did all of the above and still maintained a hobby—writing, and I was able to publish my first zine despite all of the bitterness that I was feeling over the past several months.
Honestly, living in Fort Wayne taught me a lot of things that I could probably have never learned elsewhere. If this is the town that you plan on staying in for the rest of your life, I kind of feel sorry for you. If your plans to leave have fallen through (I am no stranger to this), then I feel your pain and one day, I promise, you will find a way out. But, until then, you have to HAVE TO make the best out of what you are allotted. As the cliché stands, if there’s a will, there’s a way. There is always a way, no matter how long it takes to find it. It will happen for you. Patience, friends, family, and optimism in the end will get you through the day. Never forget this.
