Our New Home
My wife and I have moved to Tampa, Florida. It was a decision that was a long time coming, but quick at the same time. We have known since before we even got married that we would one day move to Florida, for several personal reasons. Rita’s family is all from here. And as much as we loved Charleston, it wasn’t a place we could see ourselves calling home forever. As our community of friends dwindled away from Charleston and career possibilities looked more and more stagnant, we knew it was time. Rita snagged a great job down here, so we made the move quickly. It’s already been a month, but life have been so crazy that I haven’t had the time to sit down and type out the words that I have been thinking. I have been working remotely for the magazine, so everything has been going nicely so far.
It’s a different world now—the comfort zone has been blown away. But what major move isn’t like that? There are risks and definitely steps back that are incurred from major decisions like this. Photography will definitely slow down, and I am going to have to find a new job down here. That makes me a little nervous. But having more time will be nice. I have a lot I would like to add to this blog, if I can muster up the self-discipline. I have a lot of photography I have done that I haven’t put up. If you are reading this and I never blogged about a photoshoot I did for you, I apologize. It’s not because I didn’t want to!
Now that most of the boxes are gone and I can get around in our new apartment, the to-do list is shorter and will leave me time to start learning about my new city. Rita and I hope to join a church, build a solid community, settle down, and feel like this is it. If not here, then somewhere. It’s not that we aren’t happy already, we definitely are. And there’s nothing we cherish more than adventure. But we are ready to just say, this is where we are and where we are going to be.
My friend Justin and his wife moved from South Carolina to Washington DC a few years ago, and I looked back on what he wrote on his blog when they moved. I could relate with his words about the weight of such a decision:
The move is here but the search continues. Great decisions have been made and yet the answers aren’t that much clearer. Sometimes they feel just as hazy as they’ve always been.
I am confident that the answers will come. Maybe they already have; I just haven’t been able to see them yet. The process is slow, but each day feels a little more comfortable. Besides, this is not Rita’s or my first time doing this. Leaving Charleston was not easy for us though. I’ll never forget the morning I left—driving the packed giant moving truck over the Cooper River Bridge, seeing the sun rise over the skyline of the city and the water, and thinking about the wonderful memories we made. Our relationship flourished during our four years in Charleston, and we spent our first incredible year of marriage there. We have also left behind a lot of loved ones, and that was definitely the toughest part.
In his blog post, Justin also included this quote from Emily Dickinson:
“Parting is all we know of heaven, And all we need of hell”
