Siqueiros: Change can be a good thing after graduation

Many students are afraid to graduate right now or move to a new state. Stability is comfortable and the idea of change is frightening. Leaving your life behind – friends and history – seems crazy. It is tempting to stay in the same place with the same people and never change.

I learned that no matter where you go or stay, change will always follow. It is inevitable, so you might as well be the one controlling it.

After graduation, many of your closest friends may move or marry, and as much as we want to stay in college forever, we cannot. A life changing decision will come whether we want it or not. And if we are not moving, what are we really doing?

Several students at the University have a multicultural background, and I am one of them. Because of my dad’s job in the U.S. Foreign Service, I lived in three different countries. I was originally born in Texas and I moved to Vancouver, Canada when I was three.

After living in Vancouver for four years I moved to Brazil, where I spent 10 years of my life. To top it off my parents are Mexican, making me grow up among even more cultures. This experience gave me the ability to be fluent in three languages and have a global perspective on the world. I am also more understanding towards international students, because I can relate to their experience.

At the same time, I had to deal with saying goodbye to many friends, restarting my life over, and learning a new language. It made me value how precious friendships are and how distance can tell you who your friends really are. It can be hard, but it has made me very adaptive and passionate about different cultures. Most importantly, it made me embrace moving.

I feel I can move anywhere now. I am not a rare case, many young adults have childhoods like mine, or some students have often changed states. It is not a unique experience. What matters is getting a lesson out of it.

As an experienced mover, I can assure it is worth it. I still stay in touch with closest friends from Brazil. In the past five years that I have spent in Kansas, I have made many new friends and established a completely new life again. Sure moving to a new place, where you do not know a single soul is hard at first, and there is so much you have to get rid of physically and personally. But it forces you to get out of your comfort zone and have new adventures.

When applying to jobs make sure to not limit your choices to only one state, city or street. Look at other places. We often envision ourselves in different places and make plans. The truth is most of the time things do not go exactly as planned. I thought I would go to a university in New York and I saw myself walking to Central Park on my break between classes. That obviously did not happen. But so far, I have had the best four years of my life.

Change does not have to be a different location, it can be something simple. Just make sure you do something different. It makes life interesting.

Patricia Siqueiros is Global and international studies major from Overland Park. Read more from Patricia Siqueiros.

• Updated Feb. 18, 2013 at 11:59 pm