Sometimes....

...life throws you curveballs....

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The Things You Notice When You Move...

Moving has become a fact of life. I honestly dont know that many people who still live in the same city that they were born that they have lived in their entire life. People who are content just to be familiar with the same streets and the same people that they grew up with. People are always trying to gain an upper hand in their industry which may take them to a different city for a different job, or they want to be closer to family or friends, or just need a change of scenery. 

So they move.


Sometimes a town away.
Sometimes across the state or country.
Sometimes even across the world.

I find myself a recent addition to the ranks of movers. But I guess not, because I guess my family has moved a lot. I was born in Washington, and then lived in Idaho for a bit, and then northern California for a while. It was always job stuff for dad. I found it hard getting used to a new place. Moving is hard on kids because they have to completely start over with making new friends, and if you move every 2 years it gets kinda old. But that was when I was a kid, and it wasnt my choice. I was along for the ride because I was part of the family.

But now I am an adult and have found myself joining the ranks of the movers who move on their own accord. I made that step to pursue my dream, and it took me far away from what I knew as home.


There is something about taking that step to go out into the world. Something exhilarating, and yet scary at the same time. Especially when you move fairly far away. I find me studying myself and the effects of the move a lot now that I am gone. I just find the effects of moving really interesting. There were things that I never realized were important to me until I moved. There is the phrase "You dont know what you have til its gone," but I have found that for me that phrase also works in a sort of reverse, "You dont know what you have til you have it again."


I definitely was excited to find that I do miss my family now that I moved. For some reason I never really was a family person, and I thought I was broken or something. I just didnt feel the importance of family time and all that stuff. Its really awesome to me to move and now suddenly miss them a lot.  At least I know I'm not broken now hahaha.


What I also noted which I found interesting is that I've found things that I didnt know were important to me until I was around them again. The most important of these are cookies and house pets. Seriously. The two things I miss the most from home are my mothers cookies and my cats and dogs. I noticed the cookie thing when the family I live with made them a week before I went back home. I walked in the house and smelled that familiar smell and realized that I hadnt had homemade cookies in like a 2 months. I was ecstatic that I was around the familiar smell again. And when I went back up to Redding last week, I pet every pet I could because I missed them all so much. Even peoples pets that I never really was attached to. Even Stephanie's pets whose names I could never remember ( which I now know).


So um... thats been my experience moving. You'll miss things you never knew you would, and you'll gain a new appreciation for what you never did. Its awesome.


Andrew


P.S. - I was listening to Arcade Fire - The Suburbs While I wrote this. That cd is really good.