"I'm So Glad I Live In A World Where There Are Octobers"
If you saw the title of this post and assumed this piece would be a love letter from me to fall, you're wrong (well, you're not wrong in that I'd definitely write one, but this isn't it). While it's true I love all things fall, and am essentially a walking meme, October means so more to me than pumpkin patches and an excuse to purchase yet another pair of booties that look identical to the other 15 pairs I already own.
This October is particularly special, because it marks 10 years since I packed up my little silver Chevy and moved to North Carolina. I vividly remember blaring Rascal Flatts' "I'm Movin' On" with tears streaming down my face while I tirelessly shifted the gears of my manual transmission through the mountains as I headed towards my first real adventure in life.
At 23 years old, I was just starting grad school, unemployed (yay for graduating during the recession!), unable to break free from a toxic relationship, and desperate for something new. My sister was living in Durham, NC, at the time and during a Skype session (you know, that platform we all used before there was FaceTime) she convinced me to just try living in North Carolina for a while. What was the risk? If I didn't like it I could always go back home, but in the meantime, it would get me away from the "snake with blue eyes" (as Carrie Underwood sang in the song Nicole always thought described my ex) and allow me the opportunity to live somewhere other than home with the safety net of having her and my brother-in-law nearby.
I've seen nine more Octobers since then, all of them with sweet memories. I celebrated my nephew's first birthday, danced the night away at the Brooks wedding, started a long-standing tradition of "scary movies" (that almost always turn into wine nights) with one of my best friends, supported my sister during her long labor and later welcomed my twin nieces, went on a date with the man who is now my husband, ended up in the hospital with bronchitis days before my wedding, delivered my first daughter, celebrated a year of motherhood, made the decision to try for a second baby, and now, here I am about to toast to six wonderful years of dating Spencer and thanking God for the journey that led me here.
When I signed my initial eight-month lease here in NC, I thought for sure I'd end up packing everything back up to move home where everything felt safe. My friends and I even laughed and made bets about how long it would take for me to return. Now, those friends back home are no longer a big group, but a handful of people who knew me when I was young and continue to celebrate the milestones and mourn the hardships of adulthood along with me. I never thought I'd be able to replace my Indiana friends (and I never will) but I've managed to make new, lifelong, friends here who've watched me grow over the past decade from a partying twenty-something into a wife, mom of two, and a wonderfully flawed adult.
Ten years ago, if you had told me this would be my life - married to a hipster (who won't listen to country music with me, but insists that bluegrass is "the same thing"), living in a small town 45 minutes away from my sister, making an actual living as a writer, a mom to two crazy little humans, with some of the very best friends I could ever dream of - I don't know that I'd have believed you. Life somehow managed to turn out completely different than how I thought it would be, but still everything I hoped it would be. Even on my very worst days, I'm grateful because even if everything came tumbling down tomorrow, I know that I got to spend 12 Octobers, and so many months in between, building the life I wanted so badly that I was willing to leave everything and everyone I knew just to try to get.
So, while my love of all things autumnal can't be denied, I anxiously await October every year because it's a reminder of how far I've come and all the blessings I've been given in this life.
Cheers to the last decade, for better or worse it brought me here - which is a pretty good place to be.
This October is particularly special, because it marks 10 years since I packed up my little silver Chevy and moved to North Carolina. I vividly remember blaring Rascal Flatts' "I'm Movin' On" with tears streaming down my face while I tirelessly shifted the gears of my manual transmission through the mountains as I headed towards my first real adventure in life.
At 23 years old, I was just starting grad school, unemployed (yay for graduating during the recession!), unable to break free from a toxic relationship, and desperate for something new. My sister was living in Durham, NC, at the time and during a Skype session (you know, that platform we all used before there was FaceTime) she convinced me to just try living in North Carolina for a while. What was the risk? If I didn't like it I could always go back home, but in the meantime, it would get me away from the "snake with blue eyes" (as Carrie Underwood sang in the song Nicole always thought described my ex) and allow me the opportunity to live somewhere other than home with the safety net of having her and my brother-in-law nearby.
I've seen nine more Octobers since then, all of them with sweet memories. I celebrated my nephew's first birthday, danced the night away at the Brooks wedding, started a long-standing tradition of "scary movies" (that almost always turn into wine nights) with one of my best friends, supported my sister during her long labor and later welcomed my twin nieces, went on a date with the man who is now my husband, ended up in the hospital with bronchitis days before my wedding, delivered my first daughter, celebrated a year of motherhood, made the decision to try for a second baby, and now, here I am about to toast to six wonderful years of dating Spencer and thanking God for the journey that led me here.
When I signed my initial eight-month lease here in NC, I thought for sure I'd end up packing everything back up to move home where everything felt safe. My friends and I even laughed and made bets about how long it would take for me to return. Now, those friends back home are no longer a big group, but a handful of people who knew me when I was young and continue to celebrate the milestones and mourn the hardships of adulthood along with me. I never thought I'd be able to replace my Indiana friends (and I never will) but I've managed to make new, lifelong, friends here who've watched me grow over the past decade from a partying twenty-something into a wife, mom of two, and a wonderfully flawed adult.
Ten years ago, if you had told me this would be my life - married to a hipster (who won't listen to country music with me, but insists that bluegrass is "the same thing"), living in a small town 45 minutes away from my sister, making an actual living as a writer, a mom to two crazy little humans, with some of the very best friends I could ever dream of - I don't know that I'd have believed you. Life somehow managed to turn out completely different than how I thought it would be, but still everything I hoped it would be. Even on my very worst days, I'm grateful because even if everything came tumbling down tomorrow, I know that I got to spend 12 Octobers, and so many months in between, building the life I wanted so badly that I was willing to leave everything and everyone I knew just to try to get.
So, while my love of all things autumnal can't be denied, I anxiously await October every year because it's a reminder of how far I've come and all the blessings I've been given in this life.
Cheers to the last decade, for better or worse it brought me here - which is a pretty good place to be.
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