Nueva a NOVA

I'm not sure if I can use that Spanish word for "new" in that context or not, but it seemed fitting to use Spanish for the title of this post because in my new locale (NOVA= Northern Virginia) there are a lot of Spanish speakers! Which is exciting, because that also means cool ingredients in the grocery store and lots of Mexican restaurants (Mexican food is my favorite).

Despite adjusting to driving in significantly more traffic than I've ever driven in before, I am really liking my new hometown. Centreville, where I live, is much quieter than Fairfax, where I work, and yet still not too far a distance from my frequent haunts (read: Giant, Walmart, Chipotle). Actually, there's a Chipotle-one of my most favorite restaurants-literally around the corner from my apartment complex. I may or may not have been there an embarrassing number of times already... No regrets. Conveniently, there is also a Dollar Store and a US post office in that same plaza, along with a gas station, a Subway, and a few other stores. The way I described it to my parents when they came to help me move in was "there are so many places to spend money around here!"

Speaking of my parents, they're the best. They helped me move almost everything I own into a second floor apartment in a building with no elevators. They paid for the Uhaul, which Dad drove from PA, and even spent the rest of the move-in day with me at the apartment pool and a nearby mall (only like 20 mins away and bigger than most from home). My nuclear and extended family have been super supportive of me moving into this next phase of life, not that I expected anything different. :) I'm super grateful for technology that allows me to stay in touch with them, as well as friends who are across the country and abroad, and of course to all of them for taking the time to keep in touch with me despite their own stress and busy lives. Shoutout to iMessage and Facebook, shoutout to wonderful friends and family!

But back to NOVA. There are stores and malls and restaurants everywhere, which is fun (even when you're just starting a job and don't have much money yet and mostly have to window shop). I've only been into DC once so far, but it's about an hour away via a short drive to the metro station and then about a 45ish minute metro ride, so I'm planning to visit again soon. There are all kinds of new sights, including a national park which I visited last weekend with my roomie, Ashley, and we loved.

Let me just say what everyone knows already: I'm so glad Ashley's here now! I need my alone time as much as the next guy (actually, probably less than the typical human being), but I don't like living alone. I knew when I planned to move here that I would have about four weeks of living by myself before Ashley's job in State College ended and she would move in with me. I also knew that month might be a struggle for my extrovert-leaning self. Without many friends in the area, I knew I could count on a lot of alone time, something that I don't really like. I did have a lot of alone time, and I made the best of it. I got caught up on some movies I wanted to watch (via Redbox), but because I didn't have internet at my apartment (I chose not to pay for it until Ashley got here so as to save some money) I ended up doing a lot of old school activities- reading books, journaling, swimming in the pool, taking baths, and good old fashioned thinking. I'm very introspective, and while my middle school and even high school self got stuck ruminating on all my faults and mistakes with any large amounts of introspection, my 22 year old self kind of enjoys it. Thankfully, my self image has really settled out into a pretty positive one, which I could attribute probably half as much to my hormones calming down as I could to the influences of faith, family, friends, thought, life experience, etc. So my large amounts of introspection during my month-long roomie-less living weren't quite so melancholy as they might have been in my younger years, but instead a good time to evaluate and reflect, make goals, and above all, be thankful.

I am endeavoring to practice gratitude right now more than ever. It's mostly due to that devotional/book I'm still reading "One Thousand Gifts," which is still challenging and encouraging me more than I even hoped that it would. I'm learning experientially that what makes the greatest days is a grateful heart, and to be living life to the fullest and to love gracefully and to worship God genuinely, it all requires recognizing the countless evidences of God's love for and grace towards me. So of course the best way to let it sink in that these evidences are countless is to count them. I'm at 138, and admittedly, I don't write every day and I'm certain that I've missed some as they've gone by. The truth is, like a pastor said this past Sunday morning at Grace Covenant Church here in Chantilly, that if God never does anything for me in my whole lifetime except to save me, then He has already done enough to be forever worthy of my worship, already done more than I ever could have asked Him to do for me. I don't live my life with that kind of thankful attitude every day, but it's my aim. God's been so gracious to me, across my lifetime and especially in this season now, and I'm learning to make gratitude a much bigger part of my life. :)

Truthfully, I don't think there's much I can complain about right now. Gratitude goals even set aside, I'm happy here in NOVA, and excited to continue to settle in, meet new friends, learn and grow. I'm still getting comfortable with my job, but I do really enjoy it. It is fast-paced and different every day, and while I have a lot of responsibilities, many of them involve interacting with families and that's my favorite part. I feel lucky/blessed to have landed a job that challenges me AND I enjoy, with coworkers and a boss who are really great people. I love that it just so happened to work out (read: God orchestrated) that one of my best friends moved to the area and agreed to be my roommate. I so enjoy the fact that my new home is only about a 2.5-3 hour drive from my family's home, and that I've already been there to visit them and even got to help move Ben into his first year of college at St. Francis. It's so fun that Ashley and I even know a few other friends in the area and have been able to visit with them already. Our apartment is perfect for us and we're enjoying decorating it and making it feel like our new home.
Working full-time is an adjustment; some days I come home and I'm so tired that I pretty much eat dinner, check social media, and go to bed. But I am learning so much in this season of life, and truly enjoying it. All of it. (Okay, most of it. Not the paying my own bills part. Not the more taxes part. Not the figuring out lots more paperwork part. And while I'm happy to be "single" right now, I wouldn't mind if that changed eventually. In fact, if you're a male reading this and you love Jesus and music and children and conversation, and happen to live in the NOVA area, feel free to ask me to coffee. Hahaha. End digression). I guess what this long ramble-y post is trying to say is basically... I'm adulting! Yay! It's kinda hard but also kinda fun! Look mom, I'm doing it! :D

To quote a country song called "Real Life," "...this is real life, in the real world... it ain't all good, baby, but it's alright, real life." :)