moving across the country

"Thinking 'Here goes nothing' could be the start of everything." Drew Wagner

If you don't know already, Chris and I have plans to move our family across the country to the Central Coast of California in the next couple of months. We have slowly been planning this for a couple of years now, and we are getting down to the wire at this point. I wanted to write a blog post about our journey in making that decision and our "game plan" from here on out - it has been a LONG transition and I have pretty much been in beast mode as far as selling things, packing items, and getting us in "moving mode"! It has been intense! When we moved 45 minutes from our apartment in Brighton to our current home in Chelsea, we completely blanked and put off all of our moving responsibilities until the last second. It was a little bit of a reality check and we knew that for our move to Cali, we had to really buckle down and get things done. It was super disorganized and it felt like it took two messy months! I wanted to just kind of lay it all out on the table in a blog post for a couple of reasons - for my own sanity, so I can sort of neatly organize our plan for the next few months, and for anyone else who is grappling with the idea of making a huge transition in their lives. (Taking a two thousand mile road trip across the country to move to an entirely new place with a very young toddler and a crazy black lab? Let's DO DIS.)

So, the whole idea was born a long time ago. In fact, when Chris and I were strictly friends, he was going to move back out to California to be with his family. We said our friendly goodbyes (he handed me his leftovers from his lunch and we hugged. #meanttobe) at the end of the school year and I accepted the fact that I probably would never see him again! I was pretty bummed because we had really hit it off, but I knew that he was excited to be back out on the coast with his family and loved ones. I was kind of planning to move to some faraway place, but I had no idea where. I've always been the type of person who wanted to experience life in a new area. I made a  plan with a couple of friends to move to Budapest, Hungary (mmmmmmmkay) just because I wanted to live somewhere completely unique! Unfortunately, the plan quickly capsized and I was heartbroken that the plan wouldn't happen. My best friend and I would frequently talk about various cities we would move to together - we were dead set that we would get an apartment in Chicago together, and then I made some serious plans to move to Portland with some other friends. Basically, I've been destined to live in a new place for quite a while.

Chris didn't end up moving that summer, and we started chitchatting again later on. We joked that we could be roommates, and I told him that I would be up for it because I want to see more of the world! I was excitedly talking about it with my friends and one of them actually told me, "You're not actually moving to California with some random guy." I have a thing for proving people wrong when they doubt me. #dontdoubtagangster (Just kidding - I didn't realize it might actually happen one day!) And then, what do you know, we fell in love and decided to do it for real and started making plans. As you all probably know, a little tiny human decided to make his way into the world and all of these plans were postponed - We moved in together and just did our thing together! We had so much fun and many good times (and rough times!) in our first apartment.

Fast forward a year and a half, we've been living in a lovely little place in Chelsea, and renting from a family member. We have decided that it's time to chase our dream to move to the West Coast, and we are so excited to finally announce that. Our drive to do it sooner than later is for quite a few reasons - we are in a flexible place now while Ben is still quite young and he starts school somewhere, we want to spend time with Chris' family, and Chris' dad Don has been having some health issues. (I'm not going to get into anything to respect his privacy! If you're reading this, Hi Don!) We love Chris' family so much, and we want to be able to be there with them. They are the kind of family that makes you feel right at home, and I am so lucky to be able to have a whole new group of amazing people in my life because I met Chris. All of Chris' siblings have been so kind to me, and I just love them all so much! Chris has wanted to move back to be near for them for quite some time, and this has been important to him for years. Also, I'm kind of freaking out internally because this is a pretty huge change for us, and change can be really scary! We don't have an exact date picked out, but we are thinking mid to late November. Soon? I know it - moving is a lot of work, and we've basically been in intense moving mode. We are planning to drive Chris' truck across the country, and even the idea of our road trip together is so exciting to me. I've never been to Colorado, Nevada, Utah... we are visiting the Grand Canyon, and I'm so excited to see the gorgeous mountains and make stops along the way! I feel super thankful and pumped that it's happening, but like anything else, it's also bittersweet - Michigan has always been my home, and it's my comfort zone. We will still be making regular visits with our family members in Michigan, but it won't be easy to not be able to see them on short notice. This is my first time moving away from my parents, and I know that it will be really difficult at times, but we want to be able to experience life with Chris' amazing and wonderful family for a while and also live somewhere new when we still are able to be really flexible with where we are. It feels like something we've just been subtly inspired to do for a long time, and we've decided to make it happen and see what's in store for us.

So, our game plan? Here's what our "to do" tasks are at this point:

• Finish selling or donating all of our items. (One of the most time-consuming tasks!)
• Sell my car.
• Make sure Chris' truck is safe to drive, and purchase new tires.
• Tie up any loose ends with the salon; make sure taxes are all good to go for this year.
• Purchase an inexpensive trailer to hook onto the truck to haul any furniture we are taking.
• Spend plenty of time with our loved ones in Michigan.
• Pack all items we need.
• Track where our stops along the way will be, find motels and spots where we will be staying.
• Make sure everything health-wise is up to date for all of us.

Those are our "for right now" to-do's - there are a few things that we will need to do right before we head out. We have been very strict with our budget in preparation for this as well! Obviously everyone's situation is different, and we are lucky to have family to stay with for a while after we arrive to give us that little window of time to get on our feet and be ready to find our own place. I hope this post is encouraging to anyone who has a dream or a goal to start getting after it. It's NOT easy -I've learned that anything worthwhile takes a lot of patience and hard work, plus a little bit of fearlessness. We experienced this with our little guy Benjamin - being a parent is not easy work - it takes a lot of time, patience, love, sweat and tears, but it's part of the journey of raising another human being, which is a huge, magical, amazing responsibility. The big stuff ain't easy, y'all! But going after those big dreams are the things that will make you deeply proud of yourself and see how strong you are. This paragraph kind of just went off on a tangent that I wasn't expecting! Whoops. Anyhow, I hope that you are all really doing great today. Being a human (and being a mama, if you're a fellow mom!) isn't easy, but it's an amazing and wild ride. How are you doing today? What big goals do you want to set for yourself? Comment below if you're feeling like it! (I always LOVE hearing comments or what you guys have to say!) 

Hugs,

Megan

P.S. I started listening to a podcast called The Armchair Expert (Dax Shephard's podcast!) and it is seriously AMAZING. I absolutely love it and I think everyone should listen! I've loved the episodes with Amy Schumer, Lena Dunham, and Kristen Bell (his wife!) so far! Y'all KNOW how I feel about a good podcast. Mm-hmm! Woo!