Auf Wiedersehen

I woke up at 5:30 this morning, like I do most mornings. But today is different, today is a special day. Today begins the next chapter of my life, I will say auf wiedersehen to my home of 15 years and start my journey to Kansas. I am a jumble of emotion this morning as I drink my first cuppa joe. If I sit still and look around me, I have to fight away the tears. I didn't know it would be this hard... Yesterday we went and picked up a little u-haul truck. (Which, by the way, was outrageously expensive - almost $900.00 to take it just over 900 miles!)Then Nick and one of his friends loaded it up - it is very full!

There are a few odds and ends about the house I will try to cram in here and there; a lamp or two, these pictures and maybe that vase... but it is really difficult for me to choose which parts of the home I worked so long and hard to create, to destroy - not that I am actually destroying anything - it is just that when you find the perfect place for something, it is hard to take it away. Parts of the house now look incomplete to me.

On the other hand, today we will drive down to Anderson, Indiana where we lived for ten years before we moved to Michigan. I cried when we left there, and I survived the experience. When we left Indiana I left a wonderful circle of friends and a house that I loved. And while I cannot go back to that house, tonight I will, once again, spend the evening with some of those friends. It will be fun to see how the town has changed since we last visited there - about ten years ago - and great to see our friends!

And then tomorrow we will head west and arrive in Lawrence. I feel an odd sense of calm about this part. It is difficult to properly express how this move feels; exciting and yet at the same time serene - it just feels right. I know that I am going to have a pretty tough learning curve for a while... as I get to know my new colleagues, the campus, the town, and settle in to my new tiny apartment. But I have certainty that I will be more than fine there, I am needed and will flourish and grow like the sunflowers in Kansas.

I just have to get through this first part... the leaving part, and then it will all be okay. I keep reminding myself what my Dad would say, "you live in the world, but you can't control it" and repeating my usual mantra, "its not just life, it's an adventure - don't forget to pack the sense of humor". I will have a box of tissues handy in the car as I say "auf wiedersehen" to Michigan, because I am pretty sure I will need it! I will see you again...