Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
One Year Later
Wednesday
May 1, 2013
One year ago today my world was flipped upside-down. I was completely blindsided, which was especially stunning since I can usually read people well and spot trouble signs a mile away. My nice little plan for life was completely thrown off track.
But sometimes what destroys you in the short-term can be an incredibly positive thing for you in the long-term. I'm happier now than I have been in years, going back to the golden era of my days in Tampa. I have a great job that, despite the insane hours, I thoroughly enjoy. I'm in better shape now physically than I've been in several years. Leaving Nashville for Huntington wasn't my idea, but it was a move made out of necessity and one that ultimately has been tremendously beneficial for me on many levels.
Last month I renewed my apartment lease for another year. I finally registered for a West Virginia driver's license and will soon be sporting a West Virginia license plate on my Honda Accord. At this point in my first run here from 1999-2001 I was sending out resume tapes like a madman, looking to climb the career ladder as quickly as I could -- not realizing or recognizing that taking the first major market leap that came along wasn't necessarily in my best interest.
This time around? I appreciate simply having a job, let alone one where the time flies by and every newscast is a new adventure in a field that I love. I know, better than probably anyone else in that newsroom, just how brutal the job market is out there. But instead of being tethered to one city without a gig like I was, trying to find work in a very narrow professional field and desperately waiting for phone calls and emails that never came, I was granted the freedom to find the best opportunity that was out there for me.
There are, of course, plenty of things from Nashville that I miss. It would have been nice to be able to see my niece Evelynn in her early months of life beyond just the briefest of interactions. Having friends and family there creates a layer of separation that even the best emailing and Facebook messaging and the like can't span, not like being there in person. Nashville was, and always will be, my true hometown. But for now Huntington is serving as my residence, and I'm remarkably pleased with how things are here. It's not the Huntington of 1999-2001, though if I had ended up back in Tampa I wouldn't have teleported back to 2003. The clock only moves in one direction.
But the toughest part about leaving Nashville, as I've written plenty about before, was losing access to Clyde, my ex-girlfriend's yellow lab. In the three years I spent with him he became my buddy, my amusing compadre who always seemed to find some unique way to entertain me. It still hurts a full year later to not be able to spend time with him anymore, save for that one supervised visit I was able to have over Christmas break.
I have a framed photo of Clyde and me on the dresser in my bedroom, so in that sense he's always here with me. It was a bit strange when I finally reached the point where I was ready to start dating again and the first girl I had over happened to notice the picture and commented about how good of a photo it was of me (it's a print of the one in this post) and I could only give a bemused smile in response. She didn't know the back story and I wasn't inclined to share it with her.
But, overall, I like the way I have things right now. After 3½ years with the same girl, the variety of the dating scene has had a certain allure. My obligations are minimal -- really, so long as I do my job at work and pay my bills, I'm set.
Living alone again was an easy enough adjustment to make, as I quickly grew comfortable again with having my own space and the considerable advantages that come with it. Especially with me working the third shift, this setup, complete with a very short commute, is working out quite well. And in contrast with the uncertain future I faced this time last year, I'm more than happy with how things turned out.
What's next? I don't know for sure, but I have at least a short-term plan and I'm content with how things are right now. And, compared with this time last year, I'm in a much better spot virtually across the board -- and there's something to be said for that.
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