Whether we make a deliberate choice or we are thrust from the nest unexpectedly, it is important for each of us to grow our wings.
When Chris and I made our first move out of northwest Indiana, the only place either of us really ever knew as home, we selected Tallahassee, Florida. We had never been there. I don't think either of us had ever given one thought to it until Chris applied to a television station there. We did not go there to check it out before Chris applied or even after he accepted the job. Nope, we went sight-unseen! No idea what to expect. We looked it up on a map ~ it seemed pretty close to the Gulf (in fact, we later learned first hand that the drive south from Tallahassee to the Gulf was just into marsh, not good beach). We found an apartment randomly, only using it's proximity to Chris's job and the price as determining factors. We quit our jobs, informed our landlord, had a garage sale, took tons of stuff to Goodwill, rented a moving truck. We caravanned: Chris driving the big-ass truck with his little Geo Metro attached and me, ahead of him leading the way, in my Pontiac Grand Am. It was a long 2-day's drive and we were pretty exhausted when we arrived to the apartment complex, but my dad & brother (who had been waiting several hours for our arrival) drove up from Spring Hill to help us unload.
I didn't work that summer, and Chris's schedule was 4A-1P, which left us the afternoons and weekends to explore our new home city, the capital of the Sunshine State. We found a zoo, a gorgeous lake (Etta), a couple malls, the bookstores, a beautiful garden estate and Wakulla Park (where Creature from the Black Lagoon was shot!). It was so much fun exploring together, just the 2 of us! We were also about 3 hours from my family and we drove to see them one weekend every month ~ the most time I have ever spent with my Florida family and I am so thankful we made it part of our lives. My mom brought my grandpa (who was in the midst of fighting colon cancer, which he beat!!) one weekend and she & her boyfriend, Tom, came another weekend. One of my younger sisters stayed with us for a week, as did my cousin, Tam ~ our only out-of-state visitor. We enjoyed the most mild winter of our lives, which included a winter parade downtown, where twinkling lights were strung amid the live oaks and Spanish moss (my favorite!!). We tried coconut water from a freshly cut coconut at a Caribbean festival, also downtown. Chris made friends with some of his co-workers at Florida's News Channel, where he was a newscast director. We went out for drinks, attended a Halloween costume party (Yay!) and shared an evening at one of their homes.
We only stayed in Tallahassee for 14 months. Unless you are attending FSU or Florida A&M, unless you are a politico, unless you want to live in Florida but not have it look like you live in Florida (i.e. few palm trees and houses that look Midwestern or Southern, not the usual stucco of Florida), then Tallahassee is not for you!! And it was not really for us. But, I made a wonderful and lifelong friend at the law firm where I worked part-time as an administrative assistant. And, Chris and I have amazing memories of the time we spent driving to & fro, the places we found, the experiences we shared, the friends we made and the lessons we learned along the way.
We came back to Indiana, expecting our stay to be relatively short-lived. We are somewhat gypsy at heart and while Florida didn't work out for us, we knew we didn't want to spend our lives in Indiana, especially the northwest corner. Not that there aren't wonderful aspects of NWI and it is by far NOT the worst place in the country to live, but we just wanted more. We needed to see and immerse ourselves in other places, among other faces, to carve out new spaces.
Fast forward almost 10 years...
On the advice of some friends, who had lived in Colorado, we took what would become a life-changing trip in May 2011. As most of you know! We returned and got to the business of getting our home ready for the market and by August 2012, it was sold. While we had initially intended to move directly to Colorado upon the sale of the house, we realized that the logistics were too many to undertake in about a 30-day window after closing. We decided that renting in NWI for a year would give us a definitive timeframe for handling all the loose ends and securing a rental in Colorado. We looked at several rentals in Porter County, wanting to stay closer to Chris's job for the year, that I found on Craigslist. One, while a bit more than I really cared to pay in rent, was in the elusive community of Ogden Dunes. A place right at the shores of Lake Michigan, with its own private beach access ~ a neighborhood neither of us had been to, but one we had always heard about and which seemed exclusive and "beyond" us.
After looking at a house in Valpo, and receiving a call from the owner that he would lower the rent by $100 just for us, and pretty well having made up our minds that this would work out for us, I wanted to see this "ski chalet," as it was described in the ad, anyway!! What the hell, right?!
Well, damn if I didn't fall in love with it immediately!!! It was open and airy! It was completely surrounded by nature! It had a 2-car attached garage (a luxury that had eluded us all these years). It was quiet and peaceful. It felt like we were checking in to a cabin for vacation up in Traverse City, Michigan, one of our favorite places to stay in the fall. We were both sure this was where we were supposed to be for the next year! We had EARNED it and were deserving of it! We were determined to make it happen...and it did!
Words cannot really describe the magic of Ogden Dunes! We were blessed with awesome neighbors, Ken & Curt, who instantly and warmly welcomed us to OD and into their home! We didn't believe ourselves to be beach people, as a matter of fact, Chris wasn't usually thrilled when I suggested beach vacations...but we came to love OUR beach! We walked there all through the year, every season, every time of day! Chris ran the beach, we walked the beach, we watched the full moons at the beach, we enjoyed our best 4th of July in years at the beach, we soaked up the late late afternoon sun at the beach, we checked out the sand castle competition and the first annual cardboard boat races at the beach!!! We thought that maybe, just maybe, we would look at the homes for sale and continue to bask in the aura that envelops OD.
But the draw to Colorado and the mountains still stirred in both of us. We knew that we needed to make this next move or we would live to regret it.
We bid Ogden Dunes, our friends & family and my beloved gym adieu in September. Again, with Chris driving a moving truck, his car towed behind, and me, in the lead, navigating toward the unknown. Full of excitement, anxiousness and, for me at least, a little trepidation. We had a place to live, but neither of us had been able to secure jobs pre-move.
There are times in my life where I have been pushed from the nest and then there are times, our 2 big moves being the greatest, when we have chosen to take that giant step from the comfort of home. Each time, we have had to spread our collective wings. When we left for Florida, my job threw me a going-away party. In a squeaky voice, trying not to cry, I urged my co-workers, some who are my friends, "May your dreams, like mine, grow wings and fly."
These chances, or challenges, to soar are lifetime learning experiences. There are good & bad results and we use the lessons the next time we are "encouraged" to step into the unknown, the scary, the new, the unexpected. We can look back and be grateful, regardless the circumstance that sent us on our way, because we now know we are stronger than we may have ever imagined!
Spread your wings! Soar! Dip! Rise again! Enjoy the scenery!
