Hello, all!
I don’t write a lot about my personal life here, for a variety of reasons that boil down to me not necessarily seeing a need to write about it here. That being said, this summer has brought with it a lot of change for me in my life, and now that the dust is somewhat settled, I would like to take an opportunity to write about it now.
Long story short, I moved to Virginia. But, if you’re interested in the long story, feel free to read onward.
The people in my immediate life all knew that the move was inevitable. In May, I married the love of my life. He’s intelligent, charming, and he compliments me in all the best ways. Along with this, my husband is an active-duty soldier, and not too long after our wedding he received orders that his next duty station would be in Virginia.
The rest becomes somewhat self-explanatory. A lot of the hard things about moving- finding a home, packing a whole house, scheduling delivery for the house goods- all were taken care of by the military. The hardest thing about the process was really the drive from Missouri to Virginia, and only because we had to drive separately.
Despite this, I spent the summer in a kind of bittersweet state of mind, making memories all while knowing I would be leaving by the end of the summer. I decided to take a break from college and chose not to do any classes for the fall semester. When it came down to those last few days, I couldn’t help but think about how hard it was to be leaving. I’m not very good with goodbyes. I left a plethora of indefinite “see you soon”s in my wake, and I’m always going to beat myself up a little bit when I think of all the people I didn’t even get around to saying farewells to in a proper manner.
This my first big move. The only other time before this that I moved my life away from somewhere comfortable was college, when I moved an hour and some change down the road to make a home in what I naively referred to as “the big city”. I stayed in Missouri, though, which distinguishes that move from this one.
Even so, I can’t deny how ridiculously excited I am to be taking this next step in my life. I’m keeping optimistic. This is a new adventure, for lack of a better term, and I’m excited to get to know the area and to make a home out here. I’m living in what promises to be a great scene as far as writing goes, and I’m looking forward to having even more opportunities to get my work out into the world. I’ve started sending out applications to some local colleges to get back into school for the spring and work toward finishing my degree, which would be really great.
At the end of the day, I’m happy to be where I am. Today, my husband and I finished unpacking the last of our boxes and no longer are living out of suitcases. We’ve hung pictures on the walls and arranged all the furniture just the way we like it. We’ve met a few of our neighbors and might even have some long-term friendships in our future because of it. He’s got some free time before he has to go back to work, and I have some time for writing in between hustling for job interviews. We have a Whole Foods down the street (vegan options galore! I actually teared up a little), the mountains a few hours to our left and the ocean an hour to our right. Life is pretty great. And I’m looking forward to the future and the writing opportunities that will open up for me out here.
I’ll always hold Missouri in a special place in my heart. But, even so, I’ve got a good feeling about Virginia.
The new house!
-Ashlynne
Ashlynne Doyle 