I never meant to move to Central Illinois. Seriously. When my parents told my aunt and uncle that this was my destiny during the great engagement of 2002 they laughed out loud. It wasn't because my hometown was that different - I grew up on a farm in Northwest Ohio for goodness sake. It was simply because I had spent the latter part of my formative years making it very clear that I was moving to a city.....somewhere exciting.
So when we got in the car after our honeymoon and drove 80 to 55 I cried the whole way. As I watched Chicago get smaller and smaller in my rearview window I thought my life was taking a drastically wrong turn. And then when I spent the first two months trying to find a job, I knew that something was wrong.
Then someone told me something that I still remember to this day, I can be happy anywhere.
I had never considered that before. Up until then happiness seemed completely situational to me. I based it on how I was performing and where I was living. Making my own happiness seemed like crazy.
Fast forward 2 years.
I got lucky when I married my husband. I actually married someone who still liked his high school friends. Most of his high school friends lived in Central Illinois. I actually like his high school friends as well. They are the type of people I want to be around.
And here's the very best part in the whole wide world.
I love their wives.
I even feel silly writing that, because I don't think of them as my husband's friends' wives.
They are my friends.
They are great friends that I want to make time for - that want to make time for me. Friends I can cry with, and laugh with. Friends that I can tell embarrassing things to and they will just step up and relate. Friends that I can call to watch my kids when I'm in a bind.
So last night as I sat in a restaurant, drinking wine with these dear friends I was thinking about how lucky I was to love them.
Today I am thankful for this group of friends that I was so lucky to inherit.
They fell into my lap by default, but I would have walked through a polar vortex barefoot just to find them if they hadn't.
So when we got in the car after our honeymoon and drove 80 to 55 I cried the whole way. As I watched Chicago get smaller and smaller in my rearview window I thought my life was taking a drastically wrong turn. And then when I spent the first two months trying to find a job, I knew that something was wrong.
Then someone told me something that I still remember to this day, I can be happy anywhere.
I had never considered that before. Up until then happiness seemed completely situational to me. I based it on how I was performing and where I was living. Making my own happiness seemed like crazy.
Fast forward 2 years.
I got lucky when I married my husband. I actually married someone who still liked his high school friends. Most of his high school friends lived in Central Illinois. I actually like his high school friends as well. They are the type of people I want to be around.
And here's the very best part in the whole wide world.
I love their wives.
I even feel silly writing that, because I don't think of them as my husband's friends' wives.
They are my friends.
They are great friends that I want to make time for - that want to make time for me. Friends I can cry with, and laugh with. Friends that I can tell embarrassing things to and they will just step up and relate. Friends that I can call to watch my kids when I'm in a bind.
So last night as I sat in a restaurant, drinking wine with these dear friends I was thinking about how lucky I was to love them.
Today I am thankful for this group of friends that I was so lucky to inherit.
They fell into my lap by default, but I would have walked through a polar vortex barefoot just to find them if they hadn't.
2 comments:
"To love and to be loved is to feel the sun on both sides". I can't remember who said it - but I know that is how that special kind of friendship feels.
I agree 100% that happiness is a choice. Great post!
Wonderful! Inherited friends, who make you wonder how you didn't find them before or how you get along so well. Thank goodness for providence or fate helping you to find your happiness.
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