This time of year has begun to feel like hope. Not hope in a rescue sense, but rather hope toward the future--a new and exciting time that grants new adventures and little surprises. In the past few years spring to me, has meant hope in the future as well as serious relocation.
As the weather got warmer and spring fever set in, DSC students would pack up their boxes and return home for the summer. That was me in 2010, hoping I'd get along with the family after living on my own. But in 2009 I was off to Miami where I would try my hand at serving almost a country away from my home and almost entirely on my own. In 2011, still young and newly-married, Jason and I moved to Charlotte with the hope that we would find financial success and financial freedom.
This summer we're at it again- with Chicago, IL as our newest destination. This time we're hoping for different things, with a different perspective in mind. We're doing it smart- paving our own trail and relying on no one but ourselves to find hope in the future.
I don't mean to sound so poetic, in fact that's not the purpose of this post at all. I realized today I had a good amount of pictures saved in the internal hard-drive of my camera from our short time in Charlotte last summer. Looking at those pics echo the feeling of hope and excitement I get at this time of year so I thought I'd share them.
Me and a few wives in the office took a trip into downtown Charlotte one Saturday.
We went in tourist shops and walked what I believe was the art district of the Queen City.
I was SO thrilled to find this sign in the fun park we were in. Of ALL the cities in the U.S. they could have named, my childhood town of Ogden, UT was "in" the middle of that park. That's a lot of miles from home!
I'd heard about their fantastic farmer's markets, so we checked it out just as the rain began to fall.
I guess there's just something about a sales summer... it screams hope. Hope in your leader, hope in your skills, hope in your new home and hope in the job.
But you're supported by others that have that same hope, and (hopefully, haha) hope the best for you as well.
I'm grateful for the opportunity to experience new places.
I'm grateful for the ease in which Jason's found work, and for the ability to pick himself up off the ground when needs be.
We discovered this beautiful hidden lake on one of our exploring Sundays. Reminded me of the North Carolina I envisioned in Nicholas Sparks' books. Beautiful.
This pic cracks me up. Ollie was SO scruffy he looked overweight. Who knew there was a scrawny little skinny under all that fur!
In just a little over a month we'll be beginning a new adventure- and I couldn't be more excited. I've started a to-do list of all the things we need to do before we move away again and it's overwhelming, but also a relief of sorts. Our original plan was for me to join Jace in Chicago in May and August and attend summer school in St. G in June and July, but a recent visit with my adviser made me realize that being away from my husband and overloading myself with that many credits just isn't worth moving up my graduation date four months. Seriously I almost cried- right there in her office. I hadn't realized how worried I was about that plan until I felt the relief.
Anyways, I guess my underlying point here is that spring brings hope in more ways than one. It's a refreshing time of year that allows you to evaluate the present and see hope in the future, even it that means just hoping to survive finals.
Gotta love spring!
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