A couple weeks ago, I changed area codes. I said good-bye
to the only place I’ve ever called “home” in Chicago and moved to greener
pastures with lots of rainbows. Really, there are rainbows
everywhere. I moved to Boystown.
It was a very surreal period,
packing up my belongings and getting ready to move. Mostly because I hadn’t had
to do that in nearly four years, but I also always thought the next time I put
my life into cardboard boxes, I would be moving back to Boston. This apartment
was my longest residential relationship since college (I moves eight times in
the four years after graduation and before moving to Chicago).
It’s crazy how time flies. When I boarded my United flight
that August night in 2009, I thought I’d be coming back a year later (even
though two days later I was crying to come home). Ever since deciding to stick
it out in Chicago, I’ve always played my life by ear, sometimes month by month
(I guess that came with the territory being a poor grad student and then an
intern for more than a year counting on false promises of a job).
I’ve never really settled here or really put down roots deep
enough that couldn’t be dug out with a month’s notice. I still don’t and won’t because
I know I’ll end up back on the East Coast someday. That’s not an if but a
matter of when. As I start to settle
into my new place, I wonder if it is time to let go and just plan my life as if
I will be here for a while – or at least for the next year.
As I packed up the last of my
stuff and taped the box shut, I stood in the middle of my empty room and closed
my eyes (OK, I didn’t really but it sounds more dramatic). I remember how
bright and white the freshly-painted walls were when I moved in as my mom
helped me stack the U-Haul boxes in the closet to get them out of the way as I
unpacked – the same boxes I was stacking in the living room for the
movers.
When I bade farewell to my room, my voice echoed the same way it
did when I said hello all those years ago.
We had some good, cramped times me and that room.
While it's weird to say goodbye and start over in a new place,
I'm really looking forward to my in-unit washer and dryer and walk-in
closet.
I'm movin' on up.
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