As we pack up our life here in Lancaster over the next two days and head to our new small town to be closer to Penn State, I find myself clinging to the silliest of things; the purple front door, our tiny mailbox, the way the apartment smells in the summertime. I walk out to our busy street corner with tears in my eyes, thinking–how will I ever say goodbye?
(Obviously) I am a sentimental person. Austin is not. He will leave here with no tribulation and forget what color the walls were and how we decorated for Christmas the minute we step into our next apartment. Meanwhile I will be grieving this place for the next decade. Seriously. I still think about the first apartment we lived in together, remembering the funny back porch and wonderful counter space and we haven’t lived there for years. What is wrong with me?!
A long time ago I wrote an overly wordy post about forward thinkers and backward thinkers. I am definitely a backwards thinker, making it hard for me to say goodbye to anything. If I wasn’t so claustrophobic, I’d definitely end up on one of those shows about hoarding.
It helps to remind myself that there are a lot of great things about this move:
We will have more space.
We will have a dishwasher!
There is off street parking.
We will have a washer and dryer (finally!).
Baby W will have his own room.
Baby Daddy will have his own (study) room.
The kitchen is just fabulous.
We will have more space.
If you could see me now, you’d see that I am crammed into a living area the size of some people’s walk in closets. It’s small. I should be super excited about this upgrade, and I am…it’s just hard to say goodbye. Luckily I’m married to a forward thinker who helps me get excited about change. I also have a super cute baby who will definitely appreciate the bigger space once he’s rolling/crawling/walking all over the place.
And so we move forward, as we should, to new sites and smells and sounds and mailboxes and Christmas memories. Change is good, and the truth is that goodbyes are only hard when there is something great to say goodbye to.
So, goodbye Lancaster. It’s been just about perfect.
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I’m going to miss you guys living so close! You made tears come to my eyes, too. Silly us. It’s not like you’re moving to North Dakota :)
Change is always hard however this is part of living our lives and learning as we go. Change opens up brand new beginnings.. love all of you!! xxoo
paint your new door purple :)
Oh – I know a little bit about what you’re feeling. (I too might be a backwards thinker.) I still think about the second apartment Daniel and I lived in. I loved the seclusion, the screened in back porch where we ate a lot of our meals while the sun set, being next door to my sister, even the tiny-ness is sometimes appealing once again when I think about all the energy that goes into keeping a bigger house. But you will LOVE your dishwasher. And when Waylon is bigger, you won’t be able to imagine him being in a smaller space. Best wishes as you begin to make your new place a home together! (I agree with Shelah – paint your door, even if it’s your bedroom door.)