#SAMobile and Me: The Why Behind our March Series on Moving

I have always admired my fellow colleague’s abilities to up and move for a position. I wonder, aren’t they scared? What about their family? What about their friends? Each and every time I hear of another colleague relocating I begin asking myself all these same questions again. The fact of the matter is I am envious of their courage and bravery to move to another city, state, or even across the country. I am not ashamed to admit I am held back by my fear to stay close to what I know and who I know.

The prospect of a new position, with new responsibilities, at a new institution have yet to be enough to motivate me to leave behind what I know. Maybe that means the right position, place, or institution has not been found as of yet. But, the other question that always pops into my head is this one, is the transition as smooth as I make it out to be in my head? In other words, is the transition and move as a student affairs professional to a different job, city, state, or institution as easy as I seem to make it out in my head or is there more to it?

What do those who have moved for a position have to say about the move? What were their biggest struggles? What did they have the most difficulty leaving behind? What was the most challenging aspect of the move? How did their families feel about the move? Do they ever become tired of being a “nomad?” What did their partners think and feel about the move? What about their children? The questions that ring through my head on this topic could go on and on but I cannot answer any of these questions.

But here’s the beauty of our field, most student affairs professionals are willing to speak about their journey. Through the course of the month of March we will be rolling out stories from new professionals, mid-level professionals and senior student affairs professionals who will be speaking about their various moves for positions. Many of those that write a post will be ones that have moved not once, not twice but three times for various positions. What was it like to move to three different states? Are there those that enjoy the idea of moving from place to place? Is that the true beauty of our field that we can move from place to place based off positions that we take?

Again, the questions keep coming but now I will have answers, as will you. The journeys that we will hear about will be from those throughout the country. The posts will be honest, open and sincere and will assist in providing an idea of what it is like to move for a student affairs position to those of us who do not know the joy and struggles of doing same. I look forward to the posts that await both you and I and ask that you read each and every one with me.

Originally posted on The Student Affairs Collective: https://studentaffairscollective.org/samobile-why-behind-march-series-on-moving/

 Selected posts from this series were created into a book available for purchase.