Sunday Gratitude: What I'll Miss

Way back here right about 10 years ago, I told you about an impending move to a new job that also involved living in a new city ... not a new-to-me city since I attended college there, but a new-to-my-family city. Now here I am nearly 10 years to the day that I started this job planning my exit strategy. It's not a quick exit strategy - I'm looking at 12-18 months - but I definitely have a plan in the works. 

When my hubs was in Tallahassee with me a couple weeks ago for the football game, we were driving to the game when he asked me if I'd miss Tallahassee when I retired from this job. So yes, I will miss parts of Tallahassee. I will miss what is essentially the small-town feel of this town, where you truly can get anywhere you want to go in less than 20 minutes, and in my new place I told you about last week, it's even less than that. I can be anywhere I need to be - either work, Publix, Target, campus, my girls apartment - in less than 15 minutes. Last weekend, we went to a little arts festival at which I saw several friends and from which my husband was literally able to walk home when he got bored. You don't find that in a city as large as Jacksonville, the largest city by land mass in the 48 continental United States. But what I'll miss most is serving on the Chi Omega advisory board, a board of women who give their time to serve and guide our collegiate Chi Omega chapter here at Florida State University. Sure, I've loved having a group of "my students" again with the actives that I advise, but what I'll miss more is the board itself, and the women that comprise it. 

We meet monthly for our monthly "business" meeting, but truly, the business portion of the meeting is the smallest. We rotate hosting and have dinner together as a group at the host's home, and do the business of catching up on each others' lives over dinner before we ever get to the official business at hand. One thing that always makes me laugh in our group text thread is when, after the host has announced the main dish and we start throwing out sides, once a few sides and a dessert are claimed, there's a chorus of "I'll bring wine!" Seriously I have more bottles of wine in my house now from those meetings than I've ever had before because there are always a few bottles left over! In age, we range from our potential newest member, a sprightly 25, to our most senior member, me, 34 years her senior in a couple weeks! I've grown to love these women as the true Sisters they are. One has been a dear friend since the very beginning of my Chi Omega journey, one of my pledge sisters way back in 1985. Others I met through their involvement in this board, but even though all of them are younger than me, most of them in their 30's, we are still a beautiful group of multi-generational friends. 

So yes, I will miss this group. And I'm incredibly grateful I took the chance to reach out when I first got settled in here in search of community. I was involved in the alumnae group in Jacksonville years ago, and I'll probably look into getting involved in that group again when I get back home. But there's something about this group and how we've bonded over the challenges and successes with the chapter we serve and the challenges and successes in our own lives that makes it extra special. I had a catch up phone call with one of my former advisees Saturday morning, and I shared that with her. She's now graduated and starting her career in a new city, and I asked her if she's had a chance to get connected to the local alumnae group or local chapter there, and encouraged her to do so when she had the opportunity, for while being a collegiate sorority member is full of its own rewards, still being a part of that Sisterhood nearly 40 years later brings a whole different set of rewards, ones I'm immensely grateful for. 

I found this perfect little heart leaf in my driveway after walking the dogs one morning. It was just waiting for me. She sits on a little shelf in my kitchen now.