It hit me today that I’ve never really decorated an apartment...
I’ve spent so many years practically living out of a few suitcases, that upon the second and third move, I deemed hanging things on the walls unimportant and simply not worth it.
Granted, good portions of my time spent living in all of the places I did were mainly lived outside of my little boxes where my bed resided, but still.
Even now, after having just finished out the longest lease I’ve ever had… (I know, I can’t believe it either)- I still didn’t really ever find the time and/or motivation to make it feel like a home. Over the course of the 12 month stay, I threw up a couple of old post cards and some drawings from my nieces, but never anything more than that. My room didn’t have a theme and no color scheme to go with it.
Honestly, this was a little perplexing to me as I knew ahead of time when I signed on that dotted line last October, that I was committing to calling this place my new home for an entire year- that’s triple the amount of time I’d spent somewhere in 5 years- but weirdly, it made no impact. I quickly realized, that even then- when signing on that dotted line- that I wasn’t fully sure. I knew a subletter was possible if needed, and I was still getting my footing post-grad. I had just signed onto a job, but it was technically part time and I still felt like I was drowning in the “what am I doing with my life” crisis.
I won’t even lie to you, from the months of November through March, I was dangerously close to zipping up the suitcases and hitting the road. Like, dangerously… So much so, that I stopped applying to jobs in Tennessee and traded my endless list of applications for locations only including the coordinates of Manhattan, Philadelphia, and London. I even threw a couple of Switzerland intern applications in the mix, because why the heck not?
Just before I legitimately packed up my car in mid-March, I got a call that ultimately kept me here- and still is…
So, I’ve moved into a new home- my first ever place of my own. That’s right… Nashville gets another 13 months.
And upon hauling things into this new cube of my own- entirely unfurnished- I realized this place was mine to make a home. I felt inspired to start brainstorming what I wanted to make of the space- which corner my little home office would go in and what eclectic colored couch I want to get. I’m currently in the process of ordering a bed frame (yes, I am sleeping on my mattress without one for now)- but there was a time not long ago that a camping mattress on the floor sufficed and I quite plainly just didn’t really care.
But I care again- and it’s a new, good feeling.
The motivation to finally make the move on my own came with a lot, but ultimately supported the idea of investing in my personal peace, happiness, and aspirations. It was an investment made so I could spend more time with you, here on these pages- which is something I’ve been away from for far too long.
So, it’s the beginning of yet another new chapter… and I cannot wait to see what’s in store.
