The Bermuda Triangle

Coincidentally, with the start of Fall I have turned over a new leaf. I have been in Raleigh for almost a year and a half now and literally have not made any new friends outside of work. For one reason or another, I have been in a funk for about the past year, but no more! I was so busy focusing on my career that I forgot to have fun, and I'm a fun person, dammit!

Here’s the rundown…

I have never liked change. In middle school I got upset when my parents decided to buy a new kitchen table - no joke. So needless to say, moving 7+ hours away from home to a city I’d never set foot in was a huge adjustment. Looking back on the only other major transition I've had in my life (going off to college), I realized that I have about a one year adjustment period with change, although I'm really hoping it was less than that with the kitchen table. It took me about a year to get used to college, granted CUET (the Clemson University Equestrian Team, for those of you who don't know) helped immensely. For as outgoing as I am around my friends, I am painfully shy when meeting new people. Moving to the Triangle was an experience...it was more like the Bermuda Triangle, and I lost myself for awhile.

I had spent the past four years of my life in the best place on Earth, with the best people on Earth. (Just FYI: People aren't lying when they say that college will be the best time of your life!) I truly could not have created a better college experience in my wildest dreams. I made many lifelong friends and I didn't want to replace them. Moving to Raleigh meant I was going to have to meet new people. After four years of carefree fun, I was a freshman again, but rather than sifting my way through 15,000 people, I had to find my niche in 1.5 million people. I was alone again (except for my roommate Carly) and the shyness returned. There honestly isn’t much to report over the past year, my job is going really well. I love what I do even though I need to bitch about it every once in awhile, but if I didn’t bitch that would mean I didn’t care. I have a new best friend, my rescued Golden Retriever, Reagan (yes, named after Ronald) and my first real house. My leaf turned about two weeks ago, when I finally said “off you” to my stubbornness and shyness.

I have finally let go of my stubbornness and in the past two weeks have done more social things than I probably have in the past year. I joined a kickball team - yes, me, the girl who can't run, or throw, or catch worth a damn. We’ve had one practice and everyone on the team seems really nice. I’m one of the youngest, but everyone is still under 30. I went to the UNC vs. FSU football game this past Thursday night and it was such a great experience. It was perfect football weather, a night game on ESPN, and I had a fun little piece of arm-candy (my friend “Pretty” David who I worked with at the marina years ago). Saturday, I ventured out to the Triangle Clemson Alumni Association to watch my Tigers take on Miami. I got to see an old CSM classmate (Johnny Mac), and to the surprise of everyone there, we pulled out an amazing win! Clemson fans are diehard, we always cheer, no matter what the odds, but we were all stunned when we won. Clemson fans are so used to close losses that the narrow (albeit HUGE) victory over Miami was a shock.
Well that’s all for now folks, I’m back among the living and taking the world by storm. Stay tuned!