A tear or two formed in my eyes as I pulled out of the parking garage early this morning and pointed my car towards Atlanta. There was a little girl in side of me that was scared of change, scared of an unfamiliar place, scared I couldn't do it on my own. I wondered why the life I had with my ex-husband wasn't good enough, why I found myself in this place of having to forge a whole new path. But then I looked down at the everything bagel in my hand and remembered I no longer had to worry about whether any crumbs fell. So I reminded myself of the good that has come out of this and told myself I had proven my strength and could do this.
As I continued to drive east, the clear skies were overtaken by dense fog. At times, my car's auto steer warned me that it was limiting my speed due to lack of visibility. What an interesting metaphor for this time in my life! Here I am forging a path into the unknown with so many uncertainties, not unlike the unknown and uncertainties created by the fog this morning. I don't know if I will actually get this job and move to Atlanta. And if I do, I don't know what kind of life I'm going to create there. But like my car's auto steer, I can slow down when the fog gets too dense while still moving forward.
To be honest, I didn't have a clear plan for today. I hadn't made any appointments with apartment complexes. I didn't even have a very complete list of ones I was interested in. I just knew that Georgia Power's headquarters had level 2 EV chargers in their free lot on the south side of Midtown, the neighborhood that most intrigued me. So I set those chargers as my destination and headed out as soon as I was awake and ready.
My phone says I walked 21,582 steps today over 9.2 miles. I spent 5.5 hours in the car - road construction added a bit of time. I toured three apartment complexes, walked through my favorite parts of the Atlanta Botanical Garden, discovered an art fair at Piedmont Park and watched the ducks in the pond. I smelled the smells of an Indian restaurant outside one of the places I toured. I walked across the rainbow crosswalks. I stopped and observed both a delivery robot on the sidewalk and a driverless car pulling up to a stoplight. I heard so many different languages and walked among so many diverse people. And I really enjoyed it all.
I have no idea how this job opportunity will play out but it feels just a little less scary now that I have walked a neighborhood where I think I would really enjoy living if it does pan out.
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