In My Mind I'm Going to Carolina

On Monday morning, I put the last of my things in my car, gave my key to my roommate, and said a tearful good-bye to the city that's been my home for the previous three years.  

When I first moved to Charleston, I didn't think I'd be in South Carolina long.  And I didn't think I'd become so attached to the Holy City.  But I was wrong on both counts and am having a hard time imagining my life away from the idyllic streets and cityscapes.  

For me, Charleston will always be the city where I found myself (or at the very least, started on that journey).  I know a lot of my feelings about Charleston relate back to the years of my life that I spent there.  I was 23 when I first moved to Charleston, I had no responsibilities and no commitments and was enrolled in a program where I met a lot of wonderful people who were a lot like me in some important ways.  

Strangely enough, I think I had the "college experience" in law school.  Even though the past three years were some of the most difficult and trying of my entire life academically, they were also some of the best years for personal growth and for my social well-being.  I made lifelong friends, found a passion, and started on what I hope will be a great career.

I could wax poetical about Charleston, but it is late at night and I'm afraid such ramblings will bring me to tears (again) so I'll keep it short.  August 2010, I quit my job, packed up everything I own, moved 400 miles away to a city where I knew exactly four people - my aunt, my uncle, and my two cousins - and had the best, most amazing, incredible, freaking time of my life.  And even though it was hard (it was so hard) I would do it all again in a heartbeat.

Have a great night y'all.

Carolina on my Mind, Virginia in my Heart

On Friday, I am starting the next big adventure of my life.  I'm leaving my homestate and moving to a brand new place for the first time in my adult life.  I can hardly believe that this time next week I might be blogging while sitting in my new apartment in Charleston, South Carolina rather than in the living room of my parents house in Chesapeake, Virginia.

Or that next Thursday, I'll be starting law school.  How crazy is that?  I have a feeling that the next few years of my life are going to be Legally Blonde-esque - I'm not following a boy to law school, but I do feel comfortable using legal jargon in every day life, and I hope to find myself along the way.

Its been kind of a big to-do that I'm leaving.  Even though its been building for months, this week has been crazy.  My parents threw me a going away party on Friday, which was really fun (I'll post pictures soon). 

I'm really looking forward to having a fresh start.  I literally know 5 people who live there (my aunt and uncle and three cousins), so I'm excited to get to meet entirely new people and experience new things.

As dumb as this may sound, I got so caught up in the excitement of moving, that I kind of forgot that I was going to have to say good-bye to pretty much everyone I know.  And I also kind of forgot that there are things that I really love about my hometown.  Things I am going to miss.  People and places and things that my life has revolved around for nearly as long as I can remember. 

Good-byes are hard.  And I'm not good at them.  In fact, I just realized that I've been medicating/numbing myself with a huge amount of carbs.  People say good-bye in a lot of ways:

1. The ladies I work with planned a trip to visit me for a week in South Carolina.
2. My parents worry (and consequently get me worried) about a myriad of issues from parking passes to student loan rates.
3. My dog sits by the door of my room watching me pack, where, I think, she is trying to find the place where she can stow away and live with me.
4. My brother acts like nothing is going on.  But he's leaving for school in a few weeks as well.
5. Most of my friends want to spend some quality time together.  Seriously my social calendar has been off the hook for the past couple of weeks.
6. My best friend Meredith, well she's already made me cry, I have a feeling that our dinner tomorrow is going to quickly collapse into Cryfest 2010.  
7. My aunt who lives in Charleston "likes" everything I write on Facebook about moving down south (oh wait, she's more of a hello than a good-bye).

The fact that all of these people want to say good-bye to me makes me feel so loved and so special.  


I have a few more ruminations to share about the emotional and physical whirlwind that is moving, but I'll spare you for now.  Plus it will give me something else to post about later this week.  So I'll leave you here: 


For right now, I've got Carolina on my mind.  But for now and for always Virginia will be in my heart.