This is going to be a pretty reflective/sappyish post, so if that doesn't do it for you, just keep on moving along... ;-)
You know, sometimes you look back on your life and pick out the really bright spots. I do it once in a blue moon, and today was one of those days, first time in ages. Some of those bright spots for me have been single events, like when I got The Ring, or when I graduated from El Cid. Others are periods in my life, like pretty much the entire four years of high school for me, or knob and senior years at El Cid.
I'm in one of those periods right now. When I moved up here last year, I was miserable. I hated how expensive it was, I hated losing all my Charleston friends, I hated the commute into work each day, I hated not being in Charleston, I hated being the youngest in the office by a long shot, etc. I still hate how expensive it is and am not the biggest fan of the commute, but everything else is pretty peachy keen!
1) I've made a fantastic new group of friends! Over the past year, I've made a number of friends, almost exclusively from swimming/coaching. And on top of that wide circle of good friends (well, it's a "wide" circle of friends for me), I've made three great best friends--Dan, Katie, and Kyra. We've had great times together in and out of the pool, whether it was at Nationals last spring, or joining together for an insanely over the top dinner party, or going to a concert, or hitting up the bar scene around town, or any of numerous other activities we've done. I tried to think about what life'd be like right now if they weren't in it and frankly depressed myself just thinking about that. They, and all the others, have really brightened up my life, and I'm truly thankful for them!
2) As you can *probably* tell by now, I rediscovered my love of the
water. Swimming, coaching, absolutely love 'em both! It gives me an
outlet away from the general humdrummery of the office and really gives
me something to do that I truly enjoy. I've said it before, and I'll
keep saying it for a long time--if I could quit my day job and be able
to support myself at or close to my current pay level on a coaching
salary, I'd do it in the blink of an eye. On deck or in the water, I
would love to spend the greater portion of my day there rather than in
the office. Kids and adults, love 'em both.
3) How far I've evolved as a person from the skinny little knob at El Cid in 2005. I'm guessing it had something, ok, a lot, to do with being homeschooled since second grade, but I wasn't the most social person coming out of high school. I was downright awkward around girls (not sure if that was from the home schooling or from being raised so closely with my three older sisters and not being able to relate to non-sibling females) and was rather introverted around guys outside of my close circle of friends. Over the course of the four years at that great hell hole in Charleston, I really started to open up. I still wasn't entirely comfortable around women, but I wasn't even close to as spastic as I'd been back in the day. Over the last few years, and especially since I joined Alexandria Masters, I've finally broken those last barriers. I've gone from being a fairly extreme introvert to having a friend say she thinks I'm an extrovert. From being really, really not a fan of parties or big group gatherings, I'm now the one who organizes us going to see a concert or going out to bars every now and then. Two of my best friends are women, and it hasn't fazed me in the slightest. I don't even have the lingering awkwardness around them that I had the last few years in Charleston post-El Cid. I don't think it's exactly a ringing endorsement that it took me 25 years to finally blossom, but hey, I'll take it! I'm completely comfortable hanging out with Katie or Kyra, even just one on one, and the bar scene/concerts/group gatherings don't even make me blink an eye. If someone had told me I'd be like this seven years ago, I'd have laughed them out of the room. Even just a year and a half ago, I was still a loner at heart and was perfectly comfortable staying in in the evenings and on the weekend and not going out to meet people or hang out with friends. Now, while it is nice to have me-time every now and then, I need that people interaction on a regular basis. Sure, a good deal of that need for interaction comes from spending so much time with little kids while I'm coaching them and needing to have an adult conversation, but still.
To put it simply, I love my friends. I love my jobs (well, coaching is substantially closer to the "love" end of the scale than my day job is, but I don't dislike my day job). I love being in the water again. I love being a social being. All in all, I love my life right now and wouldn't trade it for anything!
