Boxes, Boxes…Everywhere!

Three more weeks! I’m so excited I don’t know what to do with myself. There’s a corner in my sister’s living room that is slowly turning into a storage closet. If I were better at packing, I would be almost done by now, but since I suck at it and I procrastinate I am nowhere near finished.  You’d think that since I travel so much with the military and to visit my out of town friends that I would be an expert about packing, but I’m not. I actually hate doing it. I consider it one of life’s (many) necessary evils. I already told my boyfriend not to be shocked if he opens up a box and finds it full random things dumped into it haphazardly. I even labeled some of the boxes “Random Kitchen Stuff” and “Random Randoms”.

            My boyfriend spent a better part of Memorial Day weekend moving into the apartment. He spent most of Monday putting furniture together. He should be completely moved in before the week is over, but if not he’ll finish up next week. I want to be completely packed by the time he gets here on the 14^th. The only thing that will be left is my bed—and then off to a little BBQ / Going Away Party at my Aunt’s house before we hit the road.

            Some of my close friends and family are still in denial about my leaving. Others are happy and I’ve even ran into a few that are skeptical. I try my hardest not to get defensive with the skeptics- the things they say are based on their own opinions and maybe the experiences of others, but they don’t know me very well-they don’t know my thought process. They are not familiar with my relationship or the things that we discuss so I don’t worry about it. Those who know me and my boyfriend fairly well don’t question us; they are very happy for us. I’m not going to continue to repeat how excited I am, but I am thinking about taking a bunch of photos for the road trip….hmmm….

 

5 Weeks Left…

  The boyfriend and I were having a conversation last night, he was telling me that he missed me. I calculated that we had exactly 5 weeks left before “The Move”.  According to him that’s a long time, but I had to remind him that we are going to be together…everyday…from now on.

He will no longer have to worry about one of us leaving to go back home in our respective states. He’ll no longer have to rush though Atlanta traffic trying to get me to the airport in time or me holding out as long as I can before I would have to take him back to Newark Airport. We’ll be living in the apartment he chose for us, together.

I don’t think this move has dawned on some of my family members yet; I was packing some of my things and one of my sisters asked me where I was going. I had to yell at the top of my lungs, “I’m MOVING!!!”, and she just laughed. The sister that currently live with confessed that she really thought that I was going to ride this out for about a year and a half before I actually did it. My Dad will give me this look, and ask me, “Are you sure? Are you sure?”

The crazy thing is that my family wasn’t this emotional when I left for Basic Training or when I deployed in 2009. The idea of me leaving didn’t dawn on them until we had a Family Day on Fort Dix, the day before we shipped out. I couldn’t figure out why they were so shocked, I had been in training for 4 months before I left.

I know that my family knows that my boyfriend is a good guy and has nothing but the best intentions for me, but I just can’t help getting a little defensive when outsiders-people who don’t know me that well or have never met my boyfriend, give me this “if things don’t work out” speech. I understand that some people are just trying to look out and have my best interest at heart, but this is something that I have been planning to do for a very long time now…even before I met my boyfriend. He and I have very serious discussions about our relationship, our wants, needs, and expectations of each other. We also understand that we can’t plan for every scenario, but will work together to resolve any issues that we have. This isn’t something that we are rushing into, its been a work in progress for almost 4 years for me and about a year an a half for him.

We will be fine. I am old enough to know that just because someone is giving you advice that you don’t have to listen to it. There will always be naysayers. I’ve had family members tell me that I wouldn’t make it out of Basic Training; fast forward 14 years and not only am I’m still in, I moved up in rank quickly. So, where are those people now? …… Exactly.

So…Where Do I Start?

My name is Alexandra and I am about to begin a new chapter in my life. On one hand, I am incredibly excited and can’t wait to begin but on the other hand I am terrified about all the uncertainty I am about to face. Everything will be new: my city, my home, my roommate, my job…everything. I have been mentally preparing myself for this for about 2 years now, but only physically for about the past month or so. My family still doesn’t believe that I’m going to go, even though most of my stuff is already in boxes.

I’m not a girl from a small town moving to a big city, but a grown woman moving from a big city…to an even bigger city…and with a man to boot. I have to find a job, make friends, get used to driving everywhere, not being dependent on public transportation, get used to not having my family around, find someone to do my hair, and pump my own gas, all while continuing to build my relationship with my boyfriend. Of all those things I think living with my boyfriend is probably going to be the easiest– I hate having to pump my own gas.

New Jersey is my home; it always has been-hence the contempt with the gas situation. For the past 7 years (minus 18 months for a tour in Iraq) New York City has been my place of employment and now I’m moving to Atlanta, Georgia and did I mention it was with a man? I was introduced to this man by a mutual friend about 2 years ago. There are times when I think to myself that God created him just for me; we complement each other so well that it’s a little unreal. Sometimes he is absolutely amazing and too good to be true and there are other times when he is so very human and imperfect…and I cannot wait to begin my life with him.

Leaving NJ/NY is going to be hard because everything I know is here. The only times I’ve ever lived away from home was when I was in college and when I had to go on active duty  for mobilizations and deployments, and those don’t even count because I always knew when it was over I was going back home. Plus I’ve never lived with a man before; I was always either with my siblings or by myself so that’s going to be new. Very, very new. My boyfriend hasn’t lived at home since he was 19, so living away from his family is nothing new to him, but he worries about me getting homesick all the time. I worry about it too, but I know that I need to put on my big girl undies and deal with it.

I am about to do something completely different and felt the urge to document the experience. It will be different, exciting, new, fun. I know every day won’t be noteworthy but I’m hoping to keep in interesting.