FBland always asks “what is on your mind” which for many of us is a pretty loaded question. Today, for me, it is at least. I have been thinking about how we came to be here in NC. One simple decision in 2007 started this ball rolling, leaving National Semiconductor; and one other small decision two years later, going to college in 2009. I didn’t think, when we set out on this journey in May, that it would be so utterly foreign. I took it for granted that since we would still be in the US it couldn’t be that different. I was so wrong. 1192.4 miles door to door is the distance we moved. Away from EVERYTHING we have ever known. It isn’t just the language, or the pansies that are still blooming at Christmas time, it’s the very air we breathe and soil we touch. The landscape is vastly different. Yes, there are pines of a sort here, but the variety is very different. The deciduous trees are more plentiful. The dirt is red where exposed or at times black. The mineral composition of the water is different. There is a constant sweet smell to the air which is at once refreshing but also a constant reminder of how far from Maine we are. The people are lovely. Old World manners abound. Even the kids say, “excuse me”, when passing in front of behind you in a store. I was asked, very politely, if I could help a shopper find the fresh radishes that she was having difficulty spotting – never been asked anything like that in the NE. And then there’s my friends, family, and especially (no offense to my children) my grandkids – at this time of year. I try to keep reminding myself that even if we had stayed in Maine they now (except for Oberon) live in Mass so seeing them often would still be difficult but I miss them. I’m sure it sounds whiney and pedantic of me. I’m not depressed in the clinical sense, I am home sick and finding it difficult to change my mind set from Maine being home. I am trying to embrace my new home – NC with its rainy winter, its half asleep land, all of it. I just hope it doesn’t take 44yrs for this new land to feel like home.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 22:38:53 +0000
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