Movin' On Out

The time has finally come when moving to the US is starting to feel "real." This weekend Rachel and I moved out of our apartment and into our friend Phil's place; marking the second tangible step along the way to getting to the US.

The first step, of course, was having our big garage sale. Even after this sale the amount of stuff we ended up moving out to Phil's garage was more than expected. A lot of this stuff is going to either of our parent's place for storage, or being given to various friends as gifts, but it still feels like we have a lot of extra stuff to get rid of in one way or another.

I honestly thought I'd be a lot sadder about moving out of the apartment that I've been at for over four years. It'd really become my home, evolving with me along the changes in my life. I've changed from a nervous, single graduate to a confident professional engineer with a fantastic girlfriend / co-pilot; and in many ways my home had changed with me.

Long gone are the inherited couch, tables and bed from my grandparent's estate. They served me well during my share-house days, and over the years they had been replaced with a smattering of Ikea, a self-constructed TV cabinet, and Rachel's refurbished vintage chairs. Now those too are gone, sold to the lovely girl who has taken over our lease.

Yet I don't mourn the loss of these possessions -- after all, they are only things and have been willingly sold or donated to charity.

What I expect to miss, though, is the sense of having a home furnished with the combined tastes of it's tenants. That sense of having somewhere that you belong, where you control the environment and are free to do what you wish within it. That feeling will return once we find a place in Austin, I'm sure, and in the meantime we get to enjoy the company of friends and the excitement of change.