Moving

I have moved countless times in my life. It started young with my parents moving often for my dad’s work. I guess it is something I got used to and doesn’t really bother me too much anymore. My last two moves have been rough though. My husband and I left England at the end of 2009. This was
very difficult for me as I loved living there and was pretty happy there. I had good friends, some of whom I met there and others who I knew before we ever moved there. To be able to rekindle friendships with my English friends who I hadn’t seen for a few years was an absolutely wonderful experience for me. The only thing that softened the blow of leaving the UK, was that we were heading to Florida where my dad lived. Florida is basically exactly how you would imagine it. There are palm trees everywhere, everything is built along the coast, and the sun is almost always shining. We lived in an unremarkable area of FL, but it was still FL. I was able to find a great job that I loved doing. I was making a few good friends. I saw my dad more often than I had in the past 6 or 7 years altogether. Life wasn’t so bad.

Unfortunately, my husband did not see things this way. He had originally planned on using his GI Bill to go to school. He did go for about 1 semester but was not thrilled with it and did not want to continue. At the same time though he was not able to find employment in the area. We were
staying at my dad’s house and I think he resented it a little bit. It made sense for us to stay there, especially since my dad and his wife did not live there through the summer months (May-October), but I still think it was hard for him to deal with being in someone else’s house and dealing with other
people when they were living there. Once he decided not to continue with school, he updated his resume, put it online and expanded his job search area outside of our city. It only took about 2 months for a recruiter to find him and set him up with an interview. Long story short, he was offered a job but not in FL. We discussed it and came to the decision to move to Arkansas for this job opportunity. Basically I sacrificed my job, family, and happiness for him to take this job and be happy working again. I have to admit, a very large part of my decision was based on the fact that I was pregnant with our first child. I loved my job but it was with a non-profit organization and would
barely support the two of us, let alone a new baby too. So that is how my second, really rough move ended with me in Arkansas.