Simply Adapting – Megan’s Story

Today I am excited to have Megan sharing her Simply Adapting Story! I have known Megan for about 5 years now. Megan is married to my husbands cousin… so we are both married into the Rigdon Family. We first met on one of the many trips to the “Home Farm” where Megan’s husband grew up. {G} is very close to his aunt, uncle, and cousins so we were there for lots of family gatherings. It was nice to have Megan around since we are about the same age and she was also dating a Rigdon… which believe it or not is was a challenge at times. :)

{ Megan’s Story }

My name is Megan! I was born in a small town in Maryland and lived there my entire life until I was 25 years old. I even lived at home most of my college years and commuted to school. I have never been away from my family and friends until I moved states in 2009. My husband and I are high school sweethearts. We began dating when I was 16 years old. After a long distance college relationship (he went to UNC Chapel Hill) he returned to Maryland where he accepted a job. We bought a house together, I accepted a teaching job at the elementary school only 3 minutes away, and then we got engaged! While engaged, my fiancé applied and was accepted to UVA Darden Business School. So two weeks after we got married in July 2009 we packed our bags and headed for Charlottesville, Virginia.

{ What are some of the things that you felt you had to adapt to in your new community or life situations }(Marriage, culture, distance, food, customs, etc)

There were MANY adaption's. One major change was not being around my family and friends. Family is everything to me and it was so hard not to see them. I accepted a teaching job at a local private school which was vastly different from my kindergarten teaching job back home (which I missed immensely). Even though we were newlyweds, our relationship did not change much since we lived with each other 3 years prior to getting married. We were so surprised to find out we were pregnant 8 months after we moved to Charlottesville! My husband and I talk about our move to Charlottesville all the time and how it was the BEST two years of our lives! After he graduated from business school, we moved back home to Maryland. We will never forget the lasting friendships we made and the fun times we had there!

{ What advice would you give to readers to help in simply adapting to their new home? }

My advice to help you adapt to a new town is to not be afraid to become part of the community. While my husband was busy studying and going to school most hours of the day, I was hoping to make friends! I signed up for the partner association through my husband’s school where I met some awesome gals. We would get together a few nights a week while our husbands went to their night classes and we all hung out pretty much every weekend for two years! Now we are living all over the East Coast, but we consider each other our C’ville Family and keep in touch through weekly emails and even get together a few times a year. I also found that keeping a blog was a great way to journal what we were up to. My family loved reading it and seeing pictures of our weekly adventures! I signed up for a 365 Photo Challenge online which I felt helped me to find out more about my town and also kept me quite busy too!

 

{ What are some fun tips and tricks that you have learned from living in is your new Hometown? }

My tip would be to explore your new home town as much as possible!! Take lots of pictures! My husband and I had so much fun spending weekends checking out new places- the local farmer’s market, Downtown Mall, Montilcello, Carters Mountain, Veritas Vineyards, The Lawn, the Corner (lots of college bars and restaurants)…  

 

I have always considered myself a crafty gal, but when I moved to Charlottesville I began making lots of things! The private school that I had worked for there was all about handmade EVERYTHING! I remember having my beginning of the year welcome post cards all written out and ready to send to my students. When I showed them to my coworkers they seemed a little thrown off that I did not make the postcards myself! I had just stopped by the local teacher store and bought a pack. Needless to say after that moment, even though I felt pretty silly at the time and wanted to crawl in a hole, I fell in love with everything handmade!

{ Post a local recipe from the most recent area you moved to that you didn't know about before: }

I don’t really have a recipe to share, but most Charlottesville restaurants always had a Mac and Cheese dish… it was a big thing there! My favorite restaurant in Charlottesville was The Local (http://www.thelocal-cville.com/). Their food was so yummy and all made from fresh local ingredients.

 

{ What I love about Megan’s Story }

I love that Megan moved to support her husbands education and future career goals. I think by making this move it brought them even closer together since you don’t have current friends and family to fall back on when living in a new state. Going back to my post a few days ago I had said, “I believe things happen for a reason…”. Megan has become a fantastic mom and through living in Charlottesville she was able to expand her love for photography. Now Megan runs a fabulous photography business through her home and is able to stay at home with her adorable son Weston full time! If you are moving to a new area take her tip by “exploring as much as possible”! You can really find some neat places and people along the way! I myself will certainly be trying this local Mac n Cheese recipe… It looks delicious!

Thank you to Megan for taking the time to share her Simply Adapting Story! Please stop by all of her sites to learn a little more about her and see her amazing photography skills!