Recently, I went home for the weekend to attend a friends wedding and left feeling homesick. I've only been gone four months but everyone carries on as if we never left. My friends have continued their shenanigans, my family continues to spend time together, and my brother informed me he found a new best friend. Punch to the gut. Those 24 hours made me long to slide back into the everyday life we had in Fort Worth. It was good. We were happy. Now here we are in Chattanooga and I'm, well, friendless. Maybe I am being a bit melodramatic, after all we do love Chattanooga, but being surrounded by the people I love most made me realize I'm lonely.

While delving into my friendship plight, I stumbled across this Q&A and found myself laughing in agreement. Maybe I should cut myself some slack, realize there are lots of people in my situation, lower my standards, and just be.

I'm curious to know how people makes friends as they get older. If you have a story or some advice let me know.

Feeling sluggish, worn down, tired, and unmotivated was typically how I felt in Fort Worth. Mainly because I was in a rut. Being a native Fort Worthian I became complacent. I didn't take advantage of all the great things it had to offer because in my mind I had been there and done that. Terrible attitude and one that I am trying to learn from.

I talked about moving for a little over four years. At first it was Portland, Oregon because it offered an abundance of outdoor opportunities. I could picture myself living outside with my dog. Taking hikes, hitting the parks, and brunching on patios. I believe it was my mother who might have hinted at the unusually large hipster crowd that had me double guessing. Am I the hipster type? I know this is a huge generalization. Not everyone that lives in Portland is a hipster but it made me really take a closer look at what the city had to offer. The thought of moving was put on the back-burner. Fast-forward a bit to a chance encounter on a Frisbee field where I saw a great looking "soccer player*" who like me had drifted over to Ultimate. A native New Yorker in the South who loved the mountains and me. Once again a move was put into the mix. This time it happened.

Now we are half way between our families trying to navigate a new city and sketch out a rough draft of our future. One that continues to push us to explore Chattanooga, work towards our passions, focus on spending more time outdoors hiking mountains, camping, pursuing new sports, and developing Alex and I into the people we want to be. It hasn't been easy but I am enjoying new challenges and am excited for the first time, in a long time, as to what is to come.

A year ago Alex and I took a week long trip to the Smoky Mountains to find a new place to call home. When it came to prospect cities we had a few things in mind small city, plenty of nature and mountains, close to an airport, and it must have opportunities for Alex and I both to thrive. Lists and rating helped us clarify what we wanted. It also helped guide us to cross certain cities off our list and revisit others that we enjoyed.






On our ten day road trip we camped, we froze, we drove, we got on each others nerves and in the end we found ourselves excited about our future and our new city, Chattanooga.

I am curious how others determine where to move. The standard question and thought was "What made you move to Chattanooga, a job?" Do people move mostly for jobs or is anyone moving simply for a change of pace and scenery?

Alex and I are official Chattanoogians. If that is what they are called. We packed up our things, poorly I might add (thanks Mom and Dad, forever indebted to you),and moved from the great state of Texas to Chattanooga, Tennessee a week and a half ago. I'm still stressed out about something's, mainly finding a job, but the wonderful thing is how at home I feel. Maybe it is because I have Alex, Theodore, Dax, Kidipus and Scalytail or it could be because we found a city that we both really loved. Either way I am so very happy we are here.

It was a long road to make this happen and one that I plan to chronicle soon. From finding what city to move too, losing a job, finding a job, saving money, finding a place to live, dealing with packing, renovating of our old rental, and my dogs health declining there will be many things to rehash.

I'm curious though, what is it like for others when they move? How do they decide where to move to? What steps do they follow? Were they homesick? I would love to know how others move so seamlessly, at least it appears that way to me.