Big Changes, first week in NC

Part of me feels like the past three weeks have flown by and another part of me feels like it's taken forever. For the next two years, I will be writing from North Carolina while I work on my master's program. Moving to Chicago seven years ago was hard but I had a car, many good friends in the city already, and I was only three hours from my family, it didn't feel quite so isolated. Even so, I spent great parts of the first year sitting alone in my apartment, chain smoking, drinking wine, watching the Food Network with my dog, and crying myself to sleep because I was so lonely. Leaving Chicago was nearly impossible. Chicago is the only place that ever felt like home to me and the people there are family who I would do anything for. Leaving was full of panic attacks and tears and emotions that I was really not ready for. I have been in North Carolina for six days and, aside from going to check the mail, taking boxes to the dumpster, or letting my dog out, I've only left the apartment once. Last night was my birthday and I forced myself out of the door, walked over to Starbucks for my free birthday frapuccino and hauled my cookies in awful humidity the mile and a half walk to University Mall where I grabbed a burger and saw The Secret Life of Pets at the movie theatre there before walking back home. I have been very spoiled living in Chicago. Though the buses here are free, they are not very frequent and it is not very well set up for walking. At times the sidewalk just ends and you have to go a longer way around to not be walking down the side of a major thoroughfare in the grass. I may need to look into being a car owner again. I haven't remotely finished unpacking (my living room is still more boxes than floor) but I finally caught up on Game of Thrones and Doctor Who and I admittedly spent most of the daytime hours of my birthday playing WoW to my heart's content. People here seem to be very polite and friendly and I've gotten a ton of complements on my purple hair so hopefully I'll be able to stop being such a scaredy-cat and get out into the world soon.