I am about to move to a place I have never been. My transition will be from Belton, South Carolina to Ocala, Florida.
This may mean taking a hiatus on my blog. I am trying my best to write during the upheaval, but if I do post anything in the next few weeks, it will probably be a journal post like this one, rather than an article.
I will see Ocala for the first time tomorrow when my husband Donnie and I go there to look for an apartment.
I have known for a while that we would be moving somewhere. Donnie was laid off two weeks before Christmas, and getting a good job has been a long – and painful – struggle. Job opportunities in our area have shriveled, and salaries are generally low.
Donnie decided that he would improve the chances of getting the job and salary he wanted if he was willing to relocate to another state – or even country, if necessary. As a freelance writer, I can work anywhere, so I agreed.
Donnie applied to states all over the country, and even Amsterdam. Although most employers prefer local candidates, he got a number of responses, opportunities that brightened and then dimmed into a disappointing nothing.
There has been a lot of waiting, and my vision of the future has been a void, since I have not known where or when or how we would be moving. The beginning of each month when bills were due has felt, every time, like going over a cliff.
But the efforts – after three months – paid off, and Donnie finally got a job he really wants that pays well, and has excellent benefits. Ocala ho!
Everything I know about Ocala comes from Google. I have looked at the images featuring old oak trees draped in Spanish moss, and a park called Silver Springs known for having glass-bottom boats and monkeys.
I know Ocala has a population of 53,000. I know it has an Aldi and that John Travolta lives there in a sprawling luxury estate that houses his private jet.
I know that my cat will not be happy.
But for the first time in my life I will be living about an hour from a beach and also within easy driving distance to Orlando.
My mind is filled with Mickey Mouse and rolling ocean waves, my childishly oversimplified shorthand for a place I have never been.
Whatever awaits, it is nice to have a destination finally, even if in my mind it is now only a dreamy collage of photographs.
What will Ocala really be like? How will it affect my writing? In what ways will it annoy me? Will it be weird not having seasons?
In less than two weeks, I will begin to learn those things.
In less than two weeks, I will be ready.