Home is where the heart is...

This past week I was in this amazing mood. I didn't hit the lotto or have the week off from doing the significant amount of work I needed to get done or anything like that. I was in a great mood because I reached this epiphany of sorts. A pretty big one actually.

Anyone who has known me for more than a year is aware that there is one thing I am constantly focused on: moving. When I first came to area to work, I made a quick group of friends my age and still had college friends not far away finishing their education. After about 3 years, all of those people moved. Since then (around 2002), I have pretty much sworn I would be moving somewhere other than where I am now, anywhere just outside a big city, like NYC or Boston. I had been focused on it. I even got my boss to agree to allowing me to work from our NYC office if that's where I wanted to work, even though no one I work with regularly is in that office. About a year ago, I was even looking at apartments. Moving has always been a definite, it was just a question of when. Along the way, things like getting my black belt, job commitments, or other things would delay my urgency to move, but all along it has stayed strong in my mind. Until about a week ago. I've come to the realization I don't *need* to move. It's not that I won't ever move should an opportunity arise or circumstance change, but I'm not going to make it a focus otherwise. As long as I'm happy with me, I can be happy anywhere.

I was telling this to a good friend and he asked if I just woke up after all this time and "BAM!" this hit me. It wasn't like that. Basically, there have been a few events in the last year that all came together and it made me examine my life and why I wanted and didn't want certain things. It also ties into me being more goal-oriented again this year. Long story short, I realized that I was looking at moving as some kind of quick fix, almost like NYC or any bigger city was this magical utopia where I'd find this great social and career happiness. Truth is, that can be found anywhere if you're open to it, for me anyway. I've found that I'm adaptable to environments and social groups, and I'm happy with the majority of things in my life. As long as that's the case, I don't *need* to be anywhere. I can be wherever things lead me and not focus on a particular location to lead to those things. So all this got me thinking about how happy I was, hence the good mood. :D

So, I've decided that by end of 2009, I'm going to be in the position to buy a house. I need to do some things first to make that happen, but once I do, I'm buying a house (hopefully a condo). Whether that house will be bought here or 2 years from now it'll need to be somewhere else, I'm going to make sure that either way, whatever location, I'm ready for it.