I moved from Massachusetts to Nashville for a partner. Though we broke up, I've made my own life here.

The author moved to Nashville for a relationship that didn't last— but she doesn't regret it.

Courtesy of Phoebe Farrell-Sherman After college, I moved from Massachusetts to Nashville with my partner.

My friends and family urged me not to move for someone else, but I went anyway.

Though we broke up, I found a job and made friends, and I don't regret the move.

Like many freshly minted adults, when I graduated from college , I wasn't sure exactly what to do next.

I had dreams and goals; as a writer, I wanted to pursue an MFA, but the timing didn't feel right.

My future was obscure to me — except for one thing. ' Whatever I did, I wanted to do it with my girlfriend of a year.

And I did know for certain what my girlfriend wanted to do next: to get her master's at a university closer to her family in Kentucky than our New England undergraduate school.

She was admitted to Vanderbilt in Nashville, and suddenly, moving there seemed like my most likely destination.

My friends and family advised against the move Without exception, my friends and family urged me not to make a major life decision based on a relationship that might not last.

They thought I would feel alienated in Nashville, and not without reason, since I grew up in Seattle and was living in Massachusetts, and had never spent any meaningful amount of time anywhere that fell between the West Coast and the Northeast.

I found ways to rationalize my decision to follow my girlfriend — getting recommendations on what Nashville might have to offer writers, securing an entry-level position at a book review magazine — but secretly, I felt ridiculous whenever I said I had my own reasons for moving.

My reason was that I wanted to be with her.

The move was fraught from the start, both practically and emotionally.