Almost exactly a year ago today, I had loaded up all my earthly possessions into my moving truck or my Saturn, and was roaring westward on Interstate 70 en route to California. This was a deeply exciting time, and one also filled with all sorts of overtones for me. These stretched from the literary - thinking of Steinbeck and the Grapes of Wrath - to the historical - the many generations of American before me who moved west in search of opportunity and a better life. There's even some personal history there; my paternal ancestors moved to California during the Great Depression, and their descendents still live there today.
Having lived here for 12 months, it's pretty amazing to look back. I'm thinking about all the differences that seemed so unusual when I first moved here, that I now take for granted. I look at myself, and the way my mind and body have been changing during the last year. I look to the future, and smile when I realize I could be spending many more years of my life here.
I'll probably do a few debriefing posts over the next week or so as I hit upon certain milestones. Please forgive my sentimentality.
Or as we tell people, 'Chris will never have a Midwest address again, if he can help it!'
ReplyDeleteHeh, that makes it sound so harsh! I wouldn't MIND having a Midwest address again, I just prefer having a Californian one. :-)
ReplyDeleteWell, one year thousands of miles away from your closest family is a great challenge. When I was working at Hope College, I felt I was impossibly far from home, and I was what...two hundred miles away?
ReplyDeleteImpressive feat. We may let you into our ranks yet.
Signed,
A. W.