My Personal Migration Story
Meg Fallin
May, 2020
I'm going to be honest, here. When thinking about my own personal migration story, my initial thoughts were along the lines of, "I've only ever lived in the states. I've travelled often, and I've travelled out of the country a bit, but I feel like I don't really have much of a story to tell about my own personal culture." I sat and thought about my own story so far and it became apparent that while my story may not be as compelling as others, it was a little selfish to think my story is less than interesting, because I've been fortunate to have had the opportunity to leave home at all, and move around the country a bit; and my story is, in fact, pretty unique. I've lived in a few very different states and I believe this has contributed a fair amount to who I am today.
I was born in a pick-up truck outside of a hospital in Vacaville, California, a month and a half premature. I wasn't in Southern California for very long, and I have never met my biological parents, as I was adopted at birth. I spent a few weeks in an incubator at that hospital with my adoptive parents by my side, just on the other side of the glass. A couple of weeks after that, we packed up our travel trailer and our green Ford Expedition and moved over to a small town in the mountains of Northern Utah, a town that will always feel like home to me.
Ever since I was able to, my mother had me creating alongside her, which eventually became our own personal little tradition together. She encouraged me to explore with as many mediums as she could get her hands on, whenever we had time. I have memories of finger-painting outside while she would water her flowers, piecing together mosaic tiles with her, beading, sewing, painting birdhouses, and exploring with clay all through out my childhood and young adult life, until I was 18!
Creating art together is still our most treasured activity to talk about and explore together, even now, a few states apart. I think being an artist runs through our family, regardless of our biological connection. Her sister and mother are artists, too. While my family mostly just uses holidays as excuses to spend time together (we aren't religious) we continue to use this time together to sit down and create and share techniques whenever we're able to come together. I've always felt that this is one of our only true family traditions, as it's consistent and special.
I think my father's goals as a parent mainly included raising his children to discover their own passions and tell their own stories, while being empathetic and mindful of others and our planet. We spent time outdoors whenever we could, no matter the weather or the season. While growing up, he taught me lessons about the scientifically proven benefits of watching your breath and meditating, as well as my favorite life motto: "leave nothing but footprints, if even those", when travelling anywhere.
When I was 18. I decided I wanted to follow my love for art a little further, and travelled 2,000 miles away to Savannah, Georgia, to attend art school (Savannah College of Art and Design) and pursued my Bachelor's in fine art. I owe all of this to my parents, for encouraging me to pursue my dreams, even though developing a career in the arts isn't always a promising career path. Personally, I've come to the conclusion that career paths only become successful if that's where your heart is.
Attending art school for four years had opened up doors in the design field that probably wouldn't have opened for me otherwise, and I got a job working as a textile designer at Loloi Rugs in Dallas, Texas, before I even graduated from school. I moved out there within a couple weeks after graduation and spent six months learning about the real world of textile design. It was truly fascinating work, but I came to the realization that my heart wasn't there when I found myself dreading waking up to go to work, and watching the clock all day, excited to leave. I found myself feeling guilty for contributing to waste, as many rugs and materials would be disposed of after sampling. A lot of plastic waste was involved, too. We worked with many companies from around the world, particularly in India and Egypt, which involved a lot of seemingly unnecessary sample transfers back and forth. As someone passionate about living a low waste lifestyle, I decided this wasn't the right job for me.
It was at this point when I decided I wanted to think about getting into teaching, to find new ways to inspire others to be a little more sustainable and mindful about the future of our planet. Looking at my passion for it, it sort of only makes sense that I pursue a future teaching art and hinting at sustainability along the way. This is when I decided to apply to get my masters to become qualified to teach.
I enjoy the part of Texas that I've found myself in, and I feel incredibly fortunate and empowered being able to get my masters online while I teach fulltime at a preschool, waiting to become more qualified to teach higher levels. I think I'll probably be here for a little while longer. I'm not sure where I'll be later on in life, but I hope I'll end up back in the mountains and among nature to raise my future children similarly to how I was raised.
