Five years ago this week I moved to Madison to start working at the Wisconsin State Journal. Well, I moved in with my parents in Rockton for three weeks before moving to Madison. Doug joined me a couple months later in June and started working at the Rockford Register Star.
A year later, on April 30, 2007, Doug and I closed on our house.
Its bittersweet because I love our life in Madison, but I still get sad once in awhile that I don't work at the newspaper anymore. Sometimes I wish I'd never had to deal with the difficulty that was 2009 after being laid off. Considering that difficulty, I'm grateful that we still have our house.
I gave a speech during Jeni's wedding reception, and it was in part inspired by the difficulty we've had in the past. Here's the gist of what I said and what I live by: I learned a long time ago that our lives happen when and how they're supposed to. We're not in charge. I definitely learned that again and again in 2009. Theres plenty of bad but also plenty of good.
I know if I hadn't worked in the newspaper business and gotten laid off, we wouldn't have Allie or the great life we have now. We had to endure the bad in order to have the good. And that is why I look back fondly at both the good and the bad that were set in motion when I moved to Madison five years ago to work at the Wisconsin State Journal.
I feel pretty much the same way. I mean, I don't think it's all laid out for you at birth, though. I think it depends on the choices we make, you know? Like, every so often in our lives we come to a fork in the road, each fork leads to a different future, a different YOU. I know it's dorky and all but, I've kind of always felt like that.
ReplyDeleteLike, if my parents hadn't gotten divorced and that doctor hadn't given my parents crappy advice about how to get your underweight kid to regular weight I might not have even met Justin. etc...