Left the Nest

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Left The Nest

By Nova Krasner

Do you fear falling, my friend? Well, here it is. You stretch your wings wide across the wind, your heart bouncing in your chest like it never has before. You blink, hoping not to turn around and regret what might happen if you hesitate. You look forward, put your head up high– and fly.

You remember leaving at 5 a.m, on one of the last warm summer days, packing everything into your car to drive to the airport. The car ride was quiet, and everyone in the car was silent. Maybe it was because it was early in the morning, or maybe it was because they didn't know how to communicate the fact their little one was leaving home for the first time. You got onto the plane and shed a few tears.

But you wanted this. You pushed yourself out of your small hometown for a reason. You did the work, got into college, or applied for a new job. You made a life-altering decision. Packed and stripped your childhood bedroom down to just its walls. Nothing was left of this nest you called home once, besides this new life on the precipice of creation. So why do you feel so scared?

Everyone feels this discomfort and fear when transitioning into a new phase of life, but it is an experience that always feels so singular. Why is the experience of leaving our nest one that feels so solitary? Why grieve if we can always return home? Will home feel like home anymore? Maybe it's time to truly ruffle the feathers you’ve nurtured thus far and let them speak in the wind.

The key to this uniquely isolating experience is to find ourselves through newness. It’s like a quest of trying to ground yourself in new beliefs, routines, and habits that benefit you. You may have felt limited in your old environment, and limited to the structural patterns that benefited you in the past. The biggest fear is often thinking that if we stay, our environment will not be enough to push us to where we need to be.

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Hometown life can feel cyclical and redundant. It feels like there are no more steps to take, and the ladder you once began climbing is coming to its end. This is often what provokes that leap to leave the nest. To leave a home void of resentment, but full of appreciation, and become new elsewhere. The leaving part is known to your community. It reflects itself in those final days. You say goodbye to your family, friends, and lovers. You laugh with them, holding on tight to these memories as much as you possibly can.

What they do not see is the crafting period that takes place afterward. The part where you put yourself together again, in a new domain. This is the part of the story that no one likes to verbalize.

This is a feeling of isolation but in a completely different form. You feel the distance between your latter life and your new one causing disarray, splitting right down the center of you. Home is now fractured between two places. Home is both your nest and the wind of the sky you find comfort in. Now comfort resides in not just the place you grew up in, but the places you are exploring now. You never know what is in store for you in this life. The battle now is with being patient with yourself and slowly building your new routine to try and combat this feeling of uncertainty. The dissonance does not last for long and sometimes you need to be comfortable in the uncomfortable. If it feels like you do not have the stability you once did in a different routine, it's because you are learning a new one. You learn by allowing yourself to grow freely and experience is key to our growth.

So this is your sign to let yourself become exactly what you desire. Just don't let the fear stay in your way. Now, the world has gotten larger, and the experiences you’ve had grow into a depth you never knew you could achieve. Your life and personal story now have layers. Those layers stretch from one version of home to the other creating connections that allow you to keep both very close to you. Home becomes less about a place and more about the way you carry and embody pieces of each place with you as you evolve.

All birds must land, they say. So stay. Create your new abode, and cherish it. Build this on your own. Take the twigs of your past, the leaves of your present, and the branch in the promising tree of the future, and create it. Let the experiences you have had transform you into the person you desire to be.