the past three years

three years ago today, my mom and i packed up my camry and headed south (after a stop to bob evans for breakfast, of course). that's right... i have called nashville my home for the past three years. i will try my best to briefly summarize my thoughts and feelings about living here since my moving day.

8.20.06
i was excited. i had known for several months that i was going to move to nashville after i graduated college, but i didn't know where i'd be working, or where i'd be living. i didn't even know why nashville. i just sort of... picked it. thankfully, my good friend stacy had moved here a couple months prior, so i at least had a place to stay temporarily, and more importantly, a friendly face. i came down here with whatever fit in my little car (sidenote: this trip is where she was finally given a name - old faithful) and still allowed room for myself, my mom, and my mom's luggage. it was a sunday. monday morning we hit the road and started looking at apartments and i put my resume in who knows how many day cares. tuesday, more of the same. by wednesday morning i had signed a lease (which i couldn't move into for another month) and accepted a position in an infant classroom in cool springs, and my mom flew back to michigan.

looking back i can easily see god's hand at work in all of that... a job and a place to live within three days?

that month before i could move into my apartment, stacy and her roommates (lovely ladies... regan and erin) allowed me to sleep under stacy's bed on my (deflating) air mattress. i fell in love with their home and their neighborhood (and their personalities, of course).... and their coffee shops. oh, their coffee shops.

8.20.06-8.20.07
that first year was trying. i absolutely loved living in nashville (well, i technically was living in a suburb on the southside of nashville after i moved into my apartment). i also loved the area of cool springs, where i was working at the day care. i met a lot of great people at the day care. co-workers, parents, and children alike. but after almost a year... i couldn't take it anymore. my infants were turning into toddlers. they grew from a class of eight to a class of twelve. i was working almost 60 hours a week at times, with no lunch break. it was too much. there were many times i considered turning in my two weeks notice.. but i chickened out. and then i was let go (the reason is a long story... which you can ask me about if you know me. i promise you i did not harm any children or break any laws or anything horrible like that). again, looking back i see god's hand working in my life here in nashville. i wanted a new job, but was afraid to leave the one i had. so he took me out of it himself. and three weeks later, i had a new job.

i was also adjusting to living on my own. i had roommates all throughout college, and now here i was, by myself. for the most part i enjoyed it, though it was boring at times. and i was far away from everyone and everything i loved in nashville.

8.20.07-8.20.08
year number two. i started my job as an admin assistant and six months later was promoted to accounting clerk. i worked. a lot. a lot of overtime. and i learned. a lot. (both thanks to an audit.) and i was making quite a bit more money than i had been at the day care. overall, life was good. i guess that's all i really feel i have to say about that year.

8.20.08-today
this past year has been by far the most interesting. late summer of '08 i had several friends move away from nashville, all within about a month's time. it was hard to say goodbye, though i knew i would still be keeping in touch with them (well, most of them anyway). later that fall i started to feel really discouraged. i was frustrated with many things, and come winter i was ready to give up. i had seriously considered moving back home or back to anderson when my lease was up (in march). then came january.

with the new year came a renewed sense of spirit. i finally began to get to know people at my church (which i had been going to since i first moved). i had (finally) joined a small group, i got to know another group of friends and joined them for lunch almost every week (at the same little mexican joint every time), and they brought other friends (not from our church) to lunch with them. i also began to meet more people in random ways. i started going to the coffee shop more (read: at least two times a week). things were looking up. and then my lease ended, and i moved into a house with roommates and near the neighborhood i fell in love with when i first moved here. i finally began to feel like this was the nashville i belonged in. close to friends, close to the places i love, close to coffee (my fido love is being taken over by a coffee shop which is only two blocks from my home). having roommates again, being able to walk places... i am so much happier now than i was eight or nine months ago. a year ago. two years ago. three years ago.

nashville, you're stuck with me.

live is good.

and i guess that wasn't brief after all. oh well.