Ever since I was a little girl, I have been a collector of moments. At times, I felt like an observer watching the events of my life unfold. I spent a lot of free time reading, and perhaps it was this connection to the characters in my books that caused me to long for a celebration of my own little stages of life.
I know I am far from being the first to compare my life to the chapters of a book, and if I were to categorize my the biggest themes so far, my life would probably follow a fairly predictable timeline of milestones: the innocence of childhood, the unpredictability of adolescence, the bliss of first love, the journey of finding one’s self…so many individuals have followed this same path in their own unique ways.
Today, I can’t help but feel that a big chapter of my life has come to an end.
When my husband and I met, we were students of music, working on our master’s degrees in Austin, TX. I love the memories of those days. We were best friends and neighbors, constantly hanging out together, frequenting movies, restaurants, coffee shops and trying to find the newest, most bizarre attractions in a city known for being weird. It was heaven. Soon after graduation, however, reality caught up.
After just a few months of trying to make ends meet, my husband came to the harsh realization that paying student loans for seven years of out-of-state tuition was not possible on his tiny private lesson salary. After much deliberation, he decided to join the military. He had always had the desire to serve and had been interested in pursuing his music career through one of the military bands. The opportunity presented itself, and was absolutely the right choice to make.
This simple choice led to one of our biggest chapters of our lives. Three months after he joined, my husband proposed, and just three months after that we were married. I sold all of our possessions to pay for the move out to Virginia, and so our new our new lives together began. In the past eight years, we have been through so many ups and downs: the loss of a parent, the birth of two children, four moves, one deployment, the incredible journey of becoming debt-free, just to name a few. And today, for the first time in our marriage, we will be learning what life is like without the Navy.
Transitioning back to civilian life is something we have looked forward to for so long now; during these long Chicago winters, there were few things we loved doing so much as daydreaming of having our warm lives back in Texas. Yet here is the day–it has finally arrived, and I am met with the bittersweet emotions of excitement for what the future holds and a mourning for the loss of what our lives have been for the past eight years.
Appropriately enough, the weather is starting to shift here in Chicago. The days are still warm, but every once in a while, I can feel the subtle shift of a cool breeze. These days feel exactly like what I remember from when we moved here three years ago. At the time, our oldest daughter was only five months old, not even sitting up yet. So hard to believe. Now she is our active three year old, constantly picking at her little sister, always taking the toys.
I walk around town, and I already miss it. I miss it for all of the good memories we have had here; days spent at the park, climbing the hill at the end of the street and picking the grass for hours to place in the drain; the hours I spent perusing the aisles at the library, checking out every book that I found interesting, knowing full well I could never read them all; walking Gallery Park and throwing rocks into the pond; days at the lake, swatting away the persistent bees; bringing home my sweet Hazel girl from the hospital, evenings spent at home on the couch, unwinding from work…so many memories, already so sweet in my mind. While I am ready to move to this next chapter of our lives, I cannot help but take this time to reflect on the wonderful memories these past eight years have brought, and send up a small prayer of gratitude for what they have meant in our lives.
And a few more things we will miss…
Christina Freeman specializes in family, newborn, children and maternity portraits in the Dallas, TX and surrounding areas including Princeton, Plano, Prosper, Frisco, Allen, Wylie, McKinney, Little Elm and other Dallas suburbs.
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