Moving Day

I haven't really decided what this blog will be. For now, it will be about whatever I want, and hopefully something more specific in the future. 

But like my earlier post suggested, I'm really interested in everything about our new home state and what this latest moves means. 

I've been through four big moves in my life. 

I was born Beaufort, S.C. 

Moved right near here when I was about three years old. 

Then we packed up and headed farther north around the time I started kindergarten. We lived in Williamsport, Pa. until I was about 12 years old. This is a photo of Howard J. Lamade Stadium in South Williamsport, where the Little League World Series is played each August. 

Back south. 

Back north to Wisconsin. 

These were the major relocations. In between, I had some shorter jaunts for both work and school, but most only lasted a few months. The one’s I listed are the one’s that had a role in shaping me. 

In June, I left my family, friends and career behind in Augusta and set out with my new wife and “doghter” for a place I had visited only once. I now live in a town which contains about 170,000 fewer people, and not a single Moe’s or Barberitos restaurant. 

The cold climate is foreign to me - at times both refreshing and intimidating. The people - warm, genuine, and so very strange. The traffic - nonexistent. The food - fried and full of cholesterol (okay, so maybe the food hasn’t changed very much).

It may sound like I’m pining for my old life, but I’m not. While I gave up a huge degree of comfort and familiarity, I’ve gained so much more. 

Moving always feels like a reinvention to me. Like somehow, when I would arrive in my new home, I'd be different. A new start. A better Adam.

But that only worked for Ahhhnold in "Total Recall." And in truth, it didn’t work out to well for him at all. 

Like the old saying goes: “No matter where you go, there you are.”

You don’t show up in a place and become someone new. 

Being a better person, or friend, or husband, all takes work. This would be true if I’d stayed and captained a shrimp boat in Beaufort or if I now ran a factory outside Beiijing - the place doesn’t matter, you do. 

So as I dig in for this long Wisconsin winter, don’t worry about me keeping busy. I’ll be working hard to make sure this move means something. And when the snows thaw this spring and I emerge from my long winter’s nap, that man - while maybe a bit paler and heavier about the waist - will be better than the one who went in.