Seattle

From May 2012 to August 2012, I lived in Seattle, WA. I was a community relations & affairs intern at a large bank and loved it. I would return to the corporate responsibility world in a heartbeat, if I were the offered the right job. It is honestly the only other job aside from teaching that I can imagine doing. That's not what I want to talk about, though.

Seattle was amazing. It's like a small big city, which sounds silly but it's true. After a week, I knew my way around everywhere. I saw the same people over and over when walking to and from work. After three weeks, it felt like home.

I lived in a studio apartment in Belltown, which was where they had Fifty Shades of Grey walking tours because part of the book takes place there. Another highlight of my apartment's location was that it was right next to a fire station. I can now tune out sirens, which has its pros and cons.

This was my view from my kitchen table.

I never took that elevator after seeing it like this.

 
The real highlights of my apartment were actually positive. I could see the Space Needle from the courtyard (a cement block with four huge planters). The bar that was considered, with overwhelming consensus, the diviest bar in the neighborhood was two blocks away. They served fried macaroni and had a huge moose head hanging in the back wearing a lei. By far my favorite aspect of my apartment was that it was near a Rite Aid. I had never been to one before moving there, and I loved it. They had the best nail polish and kitschy perfume scents there.

My workplace was amazing. I had never had a corporate job before, so I was very intimidated. Of course, everyone was nice. My second day of work was my birthday, and my managers brought me cupcakes that we all shared. After that, I wasn't worried.

The fanciest cupcakes I've ever eaten.

 


 I loved working, even though I was usually exhausted at the end of the day. I worked on the 47th floor, and the view was amazing. The only downside was that it was absolutely terrifying during a thunderstorm. When the first storm came through, I was positive the building was going down and taking us with it.

A view from our floor! I felt sick after
taking this picture. I hate heights.

Before working there, I didn't have a super positive view of the business world. My dad is an engineer and my mom is a teacher, so I thought anything in business wouldn't be hands-on enough for me. I was wrong. My manager and I made frequent trips to visit organizations our company had given grants to, and it was always so fun to hear about what they did and what they planned to do.

The absolute best was seeing what an amazing community garden a Puyallup YMCA had created. This Y ran a youth development program that would give priority to at-risk kids, with many of these kids needing court-mandated community service hours. The kids tended flowers and vegetables, which they would sell at local events.The biggest problem the organizers experienced was that they didn't have enough jobs for all of the kids to do because they had so many volunteers.

At this point, Seattle just reminds me of all of the new thing I did. Some of them were minor life accomplishments, such as trying macarons for the first time! (They were great!) Others were more major, like moving to a new city while my family was all the way across the country.

Hiking at Mount Rainier!

A marmot. I'm so glad I found out these existed.

When I returned home, it felt strange. I've always been more independent, so moving in with my family definitely felt like a step back. It turned out to be the opposite, and, sometimes, I don't want to leave in May.

I think a change in scenery does a ton for a mindset. My temporary move was probably one of the best things I've ever done, even though it was only for a summer. Have you ever had an experience, big or small, like that?