Maren Morris graduated from the University of North Texas in 2010, and just shortly after that, the budding performer took the plunge, packed her bags, and headed to Nashville to pursue her dreams. Seven years later, on Jan. 5, 2020, she's celebrating yet another anniversary of one of the best choices she eve made.

"7 years ago today, I had short hair, some okay (alright, crap) demos in my pocket and moved into a Craigslist house sight unseen for $350 a month," she noted on Instagram, juxtaposing a photo of herself back in the day standing by a U-Haul with one of her in the present, glamorously garbed and accepting one of the many awards she's won over the past few years.

"I wrote with anyone + everyone who’d sit in a room with me. I got better, and I found my tribe of people I loved to create with and we’d geek out over The Cardigans and Sheryl Crow records," she continued. " Looking at the gap between these photos, I actually do know where the time goes. It gets encapsulated in each fantastic, mundane, life-changing, soul-crushing, mediocre, hallelujah song in my catalogue. Cheers to 7 years, Nashville, and to the friends here I now am lucky to call family."

Morris, of course, did not just find friends to call family in the city—she created actual family while there, meeting and eventually marrying fellow songwriter Ryan Hurd, a Michigan transplant. The couple, who married in 2018, now have a baby boy on the way due in March or early April.

Since her move to Nashville, Morris has won two CMA awards (she is the current Album of the Year holder) and a Grammy for 2017's single "My Church," among a slew of nominations at both institutions. She additionally has had crossover success for her collaboration with Zedd and Grey, "The Middle."

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