Just a Country Song...

They say it is a dry heat. Dry heat? Does it really matter how “dry” it is when it is 110 degrees? This is what I wondered as I headed off to Arizona. I began to feel like I was living a cliché of sorts: a young woman in her 20’s, her car packed, full to the brim with the essentials (and by those I mean shoes, shoes and more shoes), headed West, towards a new life. My life had become a country song, one about leaving home, one about family, one about love, broken hearts, and not looking back. These are songs I have sung a hundred times as I drove along in my car, as I cleaned the house, as I sat alone in my room and cried. We all cry from time to time, and I have to say that for me, I did pretty well when as I drove away from Springfield, headed towards Phoenix, a place I was both excited and scared to go.

In the two weeks before I left home I was busy, which probably helped keep my emotions in check. I said goodbye to many people, to colleagues, to good friends, and finally to my family. Some people are harder to leave than others and I had to keep telling myself that it was, in most cases, not goodbye, but rather, Auf Wiedersehen, I’ll be seeing you. I have never been good at saying goodbye, even on the phone. I hate to see the end of a good conversation, a wonderful evening, an era, if you will. But, in those two weeks, I took many deep breathes, used many tissues, and told myself that life goes on. Sometimes we need to stretch our wings and believe that there will be a breeze to help us fly. We need to believe that our parents have helped us to find those wings and have allowed us to dream big so we have something to fly towards. Who knows where those wings will take us. In my case, there was a strong, warm wind blowing west.

As a side note, this is something I wrote shortly after moving here to Arizona. Just wanted to share it.