Tag: life is an adventure

A Look Back

megHan

2021 was full of changes.

It started with me working with two year olds at a childcare facility, later found me working as an Assistant Manager at a cinema, and ended with me finding my chosen happy place – Assistant Manager at a clothing store. And boy has THAT been an adventure.

It found me ending a relationship (if you could even call it that) with a man who was a complete waste of my time, and at some point during the year, I saved myself from doing the same thing with someone else who did not deserve to be around me. Maybe I’ll put myself out there this year, maybe I won’t, but one thing I will always remember – I am not putting up with reasons and excuses, excuses and reasons. If they aren’t going to make an effort, they don’t deserve my time, energy, or even thoughts.

I made some good friends, reconnected with old ones, did a bunch of gardening, had some fun adventures (some silly, some grand), made some great memories, had a load of fun times with my mom, and really… to be absolutely honest… 2021 wasn’t actually half bad. I mean, yeah, there’s all that “outside stuff” that is going on in the world, but those outside things didn’t put much of a damper on my little neck of the woods… so that’s always a plus. (I have always tried to not let those things kill my tranquility, and it’s sad to watch those I consider friends allow theirs to be killed and, on top of that, watch all the anger that they themselves put out into the world.)

And I now look forward to 2022 and all it has to offer. I learned a long time ago that I – myself – have to CHOOSE whether my year is going to be good or bad, that I – myself – have to MAKE AN EFFORT and TAKE STOCK and STICK TO MY PLAN. And that is exactly what I plan to do this year.

As I Sit Here…

megHan

My intention was to sit down this morning and write a post looking back at last year and setting my eyes on this, but as I took a look “around the place,” taking stock of where this blog is and what it is, I realized that I needed to face where this blog is and what this blog is first.

I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since I sat down and wrote a blog post here. But then again… I guess I can believe it. 2021 was an interesting year, full of ups and downs, for all of us, and in that year, a lot of the things that I loved to do were put aside because I just… didn’t want to. Or maybe I couldn’t. It’s a feeling that I can’t explain, but one that cut me deep every time. Staring at a blank screen, or avoiding that blank screen…

It’s interesting – and I can’t be the only blogger that does – but I have several posts sitting in Draft… not quite finished. Some are just silly, and some are me sharing a part of myself with the strangers in internet world. Before I started this post, I looked over them – and the vast list of ideas I have to write about here – and realized some of the things I want to write about are things I need to deal with personally, and maybe that’s why they are on the list, a way to force me into confronting those demons, or telling my side of the story, or maybe a way of connecting with someone – anyone – who may have been in that situation before. I write these long, drawn-out opuses, and then, upon rereading them (checking for errors, making sure they sound eloquent), I have second thoughts, decide to wait a few days, save it in the Draft folder and move on – not ready to share, but also not ready to delete. So they sit there, waiting, waiting for me to be ready.

I have another list, sitting next to me. A list of all the things I need to “work on.” Some of them are simple – sitting in my garden with a cup of tea every morning when I have a day off, write in my journal every day, spend 30 minutes before bed reading. Others are more complex. Some have to do with some personal changes that I want to work on this year, others are things that I want to work on professionally to make me the best at what I do (I don’t compete with others, only myself, but in both of my chosen careers, I always go the extra mile to make sure that I am the best choice, whether its continuing education, reading books on the subject, learning from other professionals, etc). On that list is to sit my tush down in this chair and write more here. You have to start somewhere…

When Life Hands You Lemons 1: Move to Lakeland

megHan

A lot has changed since I last wrote here, so much that I don’t even know where to start… and one post will simply not due. So welcome to the “When Life Hands You Lemons” series haha. Story 1: Our move from hell.

As many know, my mother and I are roommates, and we have chosen to rent homes here in Florida until we find something that we love enough to purchase. When our lease came up for renewal (for the second time) on the last house, the owners decided they wanted to sell, and after months of looking for another home to rent in the area (and even being less picky than we usually are), we were unable to find anything. People are just not moving, with this whole COVID-19 thing, leaving us with the fear looming of being homeless.

In hindsight, this shouldn’t have surprised us. God works in mysterious ways, and in all honesty, my mother and I were just not happy in Port St Lucie. We were not unhappy, but we were not happy – just simply coasting through life rather than living it. Both of us had mentioned, at different times, looking elsewhere for a place, and had even considered moving closer to Orlando (or into Orlando) several times, but always “changed our minds,” concerned about traffic, or the pain of moving, etc. This was another moment where God forced us to make the decision, after many signs that where we were was just not the right place for us.

Back to the story —

After looking in the surrounding areas and still finding nothing, and honestly feeling stuck there because I had just begun a job a few weeks previous, Mom asked what I thought about looking in Lakeland for a place.

Here are the pros of Lakeland: We loved visiting there and did so every chance we got. It is an hour away from Disney World, a place where we spend a lot of time together. The place has history for our family – my dad grew up here, my parents dated here and then lived here after they were married, I have many wonderful memories of visiting my Grandparents here, and my father is buried here.

She started looking and when we came up to view a house, we knew that we were making the right decision. The house is not perfect, but it’s in a (mostly) quiet neighborhood (of only three streets) just a few minutes from the cemetery where Dad is. The yard is large, and full of flowering bushes, pineapple plants, and gorgeous palm trees. We immediately told the people that we would take it, and began the plans to move.

Now, today is the first day of Lent, and one of the things I gave up for Lent is complaining (choosing to give up things that keep me from being closer to God, rather than giving up things like chocolate), so I will keep the story of our move from hell brief haha.

The moving company was full of promises… and even more full of lies. The movers, though they seemed nice and appeared to feel sorry for us, spent a lot of time goofing off, and we are still finding things that they did wrong, several months later. We ended up having to rent two small moving trucks of our own to move all of our plants, quite a few boxes, etc – and took several trips back and forth doing so – but at least we didn’t have to deal with all of the heavy furniture that mom and I would have struggled moving on our own, so that’s a plus.

A few months later and we are still unpacking boxes – I know people who have spent years in a house and still have boxes – and I feel like we are constantly moving things around, not happy with the original places we chose for certain things, but I really like it here. The neighbors are nice. I enjoy spending as much time as I can in my yard (our screened-in porch is on the side of the house instead of the back, and there’s no fence) – I actually get excited when it’s time to mow the lawn – and the weather has been more wintry lately than we got the chance to enjoy in Port St Lucie for three years, while at the same time being summery perfect when it needs to be.

Will we spend the rest of our lives here in this house? No. The ceilings are just not high enough for our Christmas tree, and the smaller one as our main tree just did not work for me – it’s always the little things, right?

Are we a lot happier here? Yes. I love exploring the area and the stories my mom tells of my father never get old. I also love the chance that I can visit him whenever I want, and have been visiting him a lot lately, talking to him about stresses and things going on in my life (it makes me feel better, but I still miss him tremendously).

Life is an adventure, with or without the lemons, and I always look forward to seeing what will happen next.