New Friends for Life

After meeting her for the first time I came back to my house and said, “I think I just met someone who is going to be in my life for a long time.”

Who knows really … it’s only been a week and a half, but sometimes you meet people and you just know from the very moment you meet them that they are going to be special to you.

She lives down the street from me in my new neighborhood. I’d been wanting to explore my neighborhood a bit so one evening I decided to take a walk and check out the different streets and cul-de-sacs. As I was walking by a driveway, this girl called out to me.

I’d never met her before but she introduced her sister and herself to me and soon we were walking together and talking about our lives and dreams and hopes and it was just like there was almost an audible click to our friendship.

We made a gym date for the very next day and the following day after that we went on a night-time tour of DC together with some of my other friends. Three days after that, we went out to eat for her birthday.

Every time we hang out it’s seriously like God brought our friendship together. There is absolutely NO way meeting her was a coincidence. And I’m so thankful that God allowed me to meet her … she has made Maryland more beautiful to me.

Maryland you WERE so easy to call home before you became my home

Maryland was my dream state. Every since I was a kid I dreamed of holidays and summers in what I thought was the most amazing state in the Union!

In fact . . . I would refer to Maryland as my home just as much as I would Tennessee (the state I was born and lived in my entire life).

Well . . . I grew up. And my love for this “most amazing” state waned. The reasons I’d fallen in love with it slowly filtered out of my life.

I was used to Annapolis (a beautiful, quaint and clean city) with fun family gatherings.

And so in college, I dreamed of being able to move “home.” During my junior and senior years of college I got internships in Maryland and felt like I was finally living the dream . . .

Then . . . wonder of wonders . . . I was offered a job in Maryland! Hellooooo . . . dream come true . . .

Yes, the job was the dream job I’d wanted straight out of college . . . but I realized that even though this was where I wanted to be in my newly minted career . . . I’d fallen out of love with Maryland.
When I came back I didn’t move to Annapolis. I moved to Prince Georges County . . . yeah . . . (PG county is so beautiful, quaint and clean said no Maryland resident ever . . .)

I didn’t hang out with family either. The reasons I’d come to this state the first time weren’t the reasons I was here this time.

The state suddenly seemed ugly, crowded and extremely dirty to me. I felt trapped. Tied down and uncertain of why I’d chosen to come back.

Yes, for work . . . and I loved my work. But when I got off work and left the building . . . that's when things became a bit of a drag where all I could see was miles and miles of backed up traffic.

Okay so how do I wrap this up in a positive way . . . well . . . this post kinda speaks to the reason I’m keeping this blog . . . even though I don’t love Maryland right now and maybe don’t want to call it my home . . . it happens to be my home. And so whether my heart wants to be here or not . . . my heart is stuck with my body and my body is here . . . therefore—wait for it—home is where the heart is! Haha . . . cheesy, I know . . . okay that’s it for now. :)

Spend thrift

The other night I walked into Target for two items. And I walked out of Target with only those two items.

Okay reason #23413 that I don’t like Maryland . . . it’s so darn expensive. And I’m not making tons of money . . . in fact at the moment I’m not making any regular money since I’m between jobs.

But I’ve always been the kind of kid who gets distracted by shiny objects she thinks she needs . . . well nothing teaches you better that you can really live on very little like not having a regular pay-check of your desired income.

I’m actually quite thankful for this time and lack of money to finally and for real teach me this lesson! Honestly, I thought I’d learned it earlier but realized after I bought too many new clothes at the beginning of the summer that I really hadn’t learned how to keep my money in my bank account! So, I’m learning now and not complaining at all! :)

Doing big things . . . well, not really, but it feels like that . . . on paper

Freelancing just went to the next stage. I have now written my first contract. I’ve written an invoice before . . . but a contract . . . a statement signed by the client before work is done to ensure that I get paid . . . well, I’ve never done that before . . . until now.

It’s such a small thing really, but it feels like such a big step somehow. Maybe because so much in my life seems big right now. The fact that I am renting . . . okay not by myself but still . . . this is kinda big . . . I'm supporting myself for the most part. Yeah, mom and dad still pay for my phone bill and my audible subscription but I think that's about it. 

It’s crazy . . . I feel like such a kid at the same time I'm trying to be an adult. Like nothing has changed and yet everything has. Oh well . . . I’m here . . . for now at least.

PS: If you're more of a Tumblr user, this blog will also be posted there (http://myheartmyhometown.tumblr.com/). So feel free to follow along wherever. I might make the switch over to just one eventually but for now I'll post in both places.

New Blog. So What.

Every now and then I start a new blog, keep up with it well for a while, get tired of it, and discard it. Then I start a new blog and do the same thing all over again. Sometimes though I'll recycle old blogs so as not to "waste" space on the internet. I am doing that this time.

Enjoying some raw food at the Takoma Park Folk Festival.

So . . . why a new blog though? Well, I just moved, and I'm in the middle of transitioning to a new job and a new state and paying my own bills and living independently while also learning to depend on a new community to help me when I can't quite stand on my own two feet. It can be a little overwhelming at times, but I definitely have been learning to trust God more and be still and wait on Him.

Since I'm in transition, I don't really feel like I have a home. Sometimes I feel like "my home" is spread across 20 hours of the east coast from Tennessee to Maryland to Maine. So instead of following the motto that home is where the heart is . . . I'm deciding to try and make wherever I end up . . . my home.