Reflecting

I've been doing a lot of driving recently-- trips to Charlottesville, driving a friend to the hospital in Arlington and back, going to the temple in DC, and then just driving all over town for various reasons-- and when I would usually use this time to listen to music, lately I've found myself just cruising around lost in my own thoughts.

When my parents drove me to Provo to begin attending BYU, my Mom told me that from now on, my heart would never be in just one place again.  "You'll always have a part of you wanting to be where you aren't," she told me.  It seemed like a strange thing to say at the time, but I've learned that she was completely right.  My heart has never completely left Seattle, let alone my beloved Bainbridge Island.  I still think back on my BYU days with great fondness and look forward to a time when I can visit again.  And now Manassas will be added to that list.

The thing that's so crazy about Manassas to me is that it is an incredibly transient city.  Some friends and I recently decided to compile a list of all the families we could think of who had moved away.  The list was over 80 families long.  EIGHTY!  That is SO many people!!!  (And I'll include the list at the end of this post so all of you who are on it can see the shout-out to yourself and know that we remember you here!)  So many people I've said good-bye to.

What's even weirder, though, is that when we moved here, Craig and I had every intention of being just as transient.  Our plan was to come here, stay for two years so Craig could get his master's degree, and then move somewhere we could actually afford to live on a teacher's salary (hint: this place does not actually exist.  At least, it didn't in 2006).  We joked that Judges 6:15 was all about our family.  If someone would have told us that we'd stay for 9 years and have five children while we were here, Craig and I would have laughed at the notion.

But the housing crash of 2008 changed a lot of that.  Suddenly it was (barely) affordable, and we were buying a home here.  And suddenly there didn't seem to be any good reason to leave.  In fact, the longer we stayed, the better friends we made and the more comfortable we got, and the happier we were.  As Craig began looking for a new job, we kept saying to ourselves that while we certainly could go anywhere, we sure liked it here and would be happy staying put.

But obviously, that wasn't how things worked out.  And when you find your dream job in a lovely town, where the cost of living is slightly lower but you'll be making more money, you really can't say No just because you're already content where you are.  And the truth is that I am incredibly excited for our next adventure-- I'm excited for Craig's new job.  (I might be more excited for him to earn a few more bucks.)  I'm excited to live in a college town again with some of the perks that entails.   And I'm head-over-heels excited for our new home.

But still, it's incredibly bittersweet leaving Manassas.  Just like my Mom told me, a large part of my heart will forever be here.  And the fact that it will probably buried underneath all the traffic doesn't make it any easier.

Who would have guessed that Manassas would be so good to us?  Who would have guessed that we would come to know so many wonderful people here?  Who would have guessed that we would be so sad to leave?





And now, the list of people we've said good-bye to while we were here, including people who just left (marked with one *) and those slated to leave this summer (marked as **, and including ourselves), and also including a few who left and then came back again (marked with a #)....

Ahrens
Atkinsons
Beall
Blakely
Bott
Bowes**
Bracebridge
Brower

Butler

Cathro

Cardenas (Becky)

Cardenas (DJ)

Conley

Corbett**

Cotrell*

Cotton

Cramer**

Crouch

Curley

Davis*

Dickson

Dong

Duvall**

Dyal

Emfields

Evans**

Fillerup#

Fluckiger

Ford

Gardunia
Gepford
Gilbert
Goodson
Gray

Hale

Hamblin

Hansen (Amanda)

Hansen (LeeAnn)

Hansen (Lindsey)

Hart

Heiner

Hill (Shaunae & David)

Hill (Bonnie & Ashlon)

Holly

Horner

Howard (Jodi)

Kartchner

Kilmer#

Larson

Losee

McKay

Minster

Morgan

Oakeson

Olson

Okada

Parker

Pearson

Pennington

Peterson**

Phelps

Rook#

Ross

Rowe (Lindsay & Chris)

Salas

Sandstrom

Simmonds

Skousen**

Smith (Christine & Taylor)

Smith (Alanna & Craig)**

Spilsbury

Spittle

Stevens

Taylor

Tennant

Turner (/Gilbert)

Voss

Wall

Walquist

Willyerd

Wilson**

Woodruff

Worth

Wright


So many people who have shuffled through this little town of ours...