Go Home
This is a post I’ve wanted to write for years, but haven’t at the risk of sounding whiney.
Let me preface this a bit.
Tom and I met and married in Wisconsin and lived there for two years after getting married. But then we were ready for an adventure. “Anywhere but here syndrome” they call it, I think. We were ready for a change and were in stagnant jobs that we wanted to leave. We job hunted online all over the country, and whenever we’d see something in Atlanta, we’d look at each other to gauge our thoughts on it. We’d pause, scrunch up our noses and say, “nah.”
Low and behold, though, that’s where we landed. Tom was offered a job with a salary nearly as much as we had been making combined. So we figured why not! And honestly, we still never regret making the move to Atlanta because it truly furthered Tom’s career into what he is doing and loving now, and I got to explore work-from-home life. It was a good move. When we announced our move, all sorts of people came out of the woodwork and mentioned their times living in The ATL and how much they loved it. We were a little skeptical, but we believed them.
But we hated Atlanta.
I’m finally coming clean and I don’t feel bad when I admit it, now!
It had its bits and pieces, don’t get me wrong.
We loved our church home… but it took 40 minutes to get there. If there was no traffic.
We loved the few people we really got to know.
We got Hondo in Georgia!
I got pregnant in Georgia!
We discovered Indian food, and never had to go far when a craving struck.
We loved the outdoor mall where we could take Hondo into every store.
It was nice having an IKEA around.
We learned to appreciate the long spring and fall seasons that met briefly in the middle with about a week of “winter.”
We were able to visit Savannah, Hilton Head, Tybee, Asheville, Blue Ridge, and more…
But we were also battling all the emotions and doctors appointments that went along with two hard years of infertility, in Georgia. We rarely went into the city because traffic always made it a whole ordeal. There were far too many chain restaurants and almost no coffee roasteries. It was crowded, people were not indistinguishably friendly, and meeting people with common interests was very hard because of its melting-pot nature (which was sometimes really cool, but no one who lived there was usually FROM there).
I talk about lessons learned here, right? Well this was one of them.
Moves like that stretch you. They build a little character. They help you learn more about yourself (and maybe your marriage too).
Basically, what I’m getting at is, try to see the positive in everything. The silver lining. Trust in God. But when it comes down to it, you don’t have to live somewhere you hate forever. MOVE. FIND YOUR HOME!
Atlanta did not suit us. Not at all. So when the opportunity to move to Nashville came about we were ecstatic. Atlanta was simply a stepping stone for us, but I am really, REALLY glad to be “home” in Nashville. We are still loving it more every day. Will we always love Nashville? Who knows. But I can tell you one thing: we already feel far more rooted in the community here than we ever did in 3+ years in Atlanta.
We love going into the city.
Target is right up the road. (priorities)
We still get a lot of visitors!
There is snow in the winter! (This is a positive to me)
Tom can get to and from work far quicker than he was ever able to before.
I’m not afraid to drive here.
I was able to have my actual OB deliver my baby instead of having the on-call doctor (that would have been the case in Georgia).
The coffee and food scene is amazing!
I weirdly have more pride in living in Nashville than I ever did in Atlanta.
It feels like home, and you don’t really realize how priceless that is until you leave a place that does NOT feel like home.
I guess I’m just writing this one to stay.. it’s okay. It’s okay if you don’t like where you live. It’s valid, even. But don’t fixate on it. Make the best of it… but don’t be afraid to just pull the trigger and leave after a short time if you think that’s best. We thought (after buying our house there) that we’d be there for at least another 5 years. Two years after we said that, we were burning rubber on our way to Nashville. You can make a change and you can move if you’re unhappy! I think so many people think about the what-ifs and the risks so much that they put off a great decision far longer than they need to. I guess I’m just writing this post to encourage you not to stay somewhere that makes you unhappy.
I haven’t written a super ramble-y post like this in a while! Haha frankly, I haven’t been writing at ALL lately, so sorry if it’s all over the place. Sometimes I miss those old “diary days” of blogging, ya know? Anyways. All that to say….