One Year

Going about my daily activities I have been experiencing many deja vu moments; most have been centered around approaching fall events.  See I have been a Seattle resident for a year now which I find almost unbelievable, but the coming of fall and familiar activities bring me back to our first fall in the Pacific Northwest.  There were memorable moments of apple picking, stumbling upon The Noble Fir of Ballard for Fresh Hop Night, hiking up to Heather Lake for our first trek through these drastically different forests or a cool bundled day on the beach at Golden Gardens.

As we enter our second year I'm reflecting on our lives here and whether this is where we want to be.  Our original intention was to live in Portland, OR where we had a stronger base of friends but opportunities led us to move 3 hours north instead.  I have no regrets about the change of plans and found in Seattle something I hadn't known I'd been missing, my connection to the waterfront.  I grew up in a small coastal town where the waterfront was a part of everyday life, then for 7 years I went to school and lived in the Appalachian mountains where my love for those mountains almost made me forget about my love for the coast.  Now I find myself on a new coastline with a new set of mountains and having a connection to both in one place is a wonderful feeling.

Am I a Seattlelite yet?  I would say no but with a sidebar of 'maybe one day'. Being a country girl city life is still a bit daunting, I miss all my friends back home and I have a hard time fighting the urge to just read a book all day when it's overcast (200 days of the year).  But Mount Rainier still takes my breath away every time I see her, new friendships are forming with time and it's incredible to have all the options a city has to offer. Slowly but surely Seattle has won my heart and as our lease ends with it comes the decision to stay or to go.  Do we give this city the chance to make us fall completely in love or move on to another possibility?  For now I'll be happy with the fact that I have a choice and I'll see where that takes me.