There are lots of milestones that make up a year. There are birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, kids , or in my case, friend’s having kids, and my personal favorites – trips and concerts. I’m 100% aware with the current global pandemic that these are first world indulgences temporarily delayed due to the ‘Rona, but if you’ll allow me a moment of nostalgia here for crowded concerts and airplanes – all I can ask is, is it 2021 yet. I promise to NEVER complain about the middle seat on the airplane or that 6’5″ person standing in front of my 5-foot self at a concert ever again.
Or it could be one of those years made complete with burnout, financial and/or job stress, divorce, or loss. Considering the complexity of life, it’s probably some combination of all those highs and lows until all of a sudden it’s New Year’s Eve again and you wonder how on earth a whole year has gone by again and what have you been doing with your life.
Let’s rewind a moment to summer 2019. I had just turned 30, and even though I probably wouldn’t have said so at the time, that was the catalyst for some major life changes. I really don’t think one’s life goal is merely to be “happy”, life is hard and you sometimes you have to buck up and endure, but it was becoming abundantly clear some changes needed to take place and risks needed to be taken or nothing was going to change. If you don’t know me personally – Enneagram 1 here, so obviously to make a trillion percent sure it was the right move or my life would be a complete failure. Same thing with this blog actually…
But back to the story at hand and some background on Nashville; I moved to Miami in 2007 to study Music Business and Entertainment at the []_[] and had kinda always intended to end up in Nashville, or knew I was supposed to be there. After college the economy was crap (the more things change…) and opportunities to stay in Miami kept arising, so that’s what I did. I had an amazing church, great friends, the beach less than 30 minutes away, a roof over my head, and gainful employment. But anyone who knows me knows Nashville has always been on the “at some point I should do this” list, so in the fall of 2019 I told my roommate at the end of the lease I’d be relocating to Nashville, started the process to relocate with my job at the time, and everything that happened between that fall and summer 2020 seemed only confirm that Nashville 2020 was going to be a thing. Because what’s the worst that can happen (yeah, I don’t recommend asking this question), and honestly, if Nashville wasn’t all I wanted it to be I could always move back to Florida – being single with no kids, pretty easy to move around, and it would be better to try Nashville and find out it wasn’t form me than wake up in 10 years wondering what my life would have looked like if I just taken the risk.
If past-Sam had only known. 2020 began with such promise (ok, fine, this year still has promise, it’s just a little bonkers and I’m salty about it.) I planned a trip to Nashville for President’s Day weekend to scout out places to live and make sure I could see myself there and was going to uproot my reasonable comfortable life. Also, I needed to make sure I experienced Nashville winter because 12 years in Miami makes one forget things like seasons and winter coats. I spent 5 days out here, found an apartment (bookmark this – it’s important), went to the BlueBird Cafe, explored the Parthenon in Centennial Park, went to the BEST independent book store owned by one of my favorite authors and honestly had more fun as a solo traveler than I would have thought (another topic for another post). I landed back in the MIA and before even leaving the MIA airport instantly had the “ugh, send me back to Nashville” moment, so that’s what I pursued.
Almost exactly two weeks after that trip, a devastating tornado roared through Nashville in the middle of the night, even destroying a place a friend and I had eaten lunch while I was in town. Two weeks after that, this random novel virus that had been on the other side of the world found its way to America and the only way to describe it is the world exploded. A month after that trip, my job was a casualty of the coronovirus pandemic. However, since I had found an apartment in Nashville on my exploratory trip, I was able to put my faith to the test and still move to TN. Remember when I said bookmark the apt – it was important- well had I not come that weekend, there would have been no apartment scouting trips. I found an apartment in February that was available for exactly when I needed it in June and because of that, instead of moving back in with the parents when I lost my job, I was able to fulfill that thirteen year goal of moving to Nashville.
To keep this from turning into a novel, stay tuned for part two of this series – Moving During a Pandemic
But no matter how far these songs take me, If my dreams come true or the heart aches break me,
No matter where I make my bed, I long for you.
Tennessee
Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors “Tennessee”
