Mack and I both were born and raised in the northwest. As those of you who live (or lived) or visited the northwest know of the deep beauty and majestic splendor that is the very nature of the area. Nature is all around you, surrounding you, holding you close as it embraces its own. Mother Nature is like your second mother as the skies rain down on you and give life to the soil and keep you constantly drenched.

When I turned twenty, I grew antsy of living in the same place and felt that my life was kind of at a standstill. I had to take the jump and change. I loved being around my family but felt that, with only an Associates degree in web design, I’d only go so far— that little training is limiting. The college I went to in Seattle was taking its time about getting the Bachelors degree program and I was getting sick of waiting for it (they only recently got the Bachelors program). Sure, I could work the field, but I felt that I needed to go back to school and gain more of an education to have more of a background and understanding of the field. A change in surroundings, also, was welcome. At sixteen, I had lived abroad in Japan for a year and, having been in Seattle (minus trips around the country) since then without living elsewhere, I felt that I needed to embrace change and try living somewhere else while I worked on my education.

I choose Phoenix, Arizona since my brother and his family lived down there. I mean, come on, how could you not want to live close to this guy?

I thoroughly enjoyed living in Phoenix and watching my nephew grow from being a baby to a hyper toddler. I met and fell in love with Mack while living there. I was surprised, however, at how quickly I found myself missing the northwest. In the first month, while I had my brother only a twenty-minute drive away from my apartment, I was living alone and found myself missing my family and friends up there. I’m really close to my family, especially my Mom and brother Noah, so would call them everyday to talk about my adjustment to life on my own and, eventually, my life as Mack and I started dating and eventually moved in together. Phoenix had a beauty of its own and I adore it, however, I’m a northwest girl at heart and found myself missing it.

Both Mack and I graduated from college with our Bachelor degrees in our respective fields and we were ready to conquer the world and all it brought us. When Mack got a phone call from the company he did his internship with here in Jacksonville in February he jumped on the opportunity. Florida was a long way from Arizona (and diagonal from Washington) but it was a wonderful opportunity and a chance to experience another part of the nation. I won’t go into the Move From Hell (looking back at blog posts I allude to the horrible move but still won’t go into it since I don’t feel like bring up those memories— they still make me break out in hives) but we embraced Florida for all its quirks.

Thanksgiving of 2008, I flew back to Seattle for a week to see my family and friends. Back in the area and seeing my family, friends, and how much the state had changed since I had visited it a year earlier, I realized how much I truly missed the area. Although I generally hate the cold due to my inability to maintain a reasonable body temperature I was surprised that the cold, ultimately, didn’t drive me as crazy as it used to. The rustic beauty and nature embraced me and I found my heart yearning to return to the northwest. When my parents dropped me off at the airport I was almost in tears over leaving but was excited to see Mack and the animals again.

In December, Mack took a trip to visit his family. He, too, realized how much he missed the area and the northwest way of life. Family is number one important thing for both Mack and myself. Being separated from family cuts us both deep in the heart. After his trip up to see family, Mack and I vaguely talked about moving back to the northwest sometime since “wouldn’t it be wonderful to be around family? What about camping without fear of alligators eating us? That’d be really neat.”

Recently Mack and I sat down and had a heart-to-heart about where we wanted to be and the desire to be close to family. One of my older brothers just recently moved back to the northwest after living on the east coast for fourteen years. His lifelong dream of being an doctor has finally come true (having just finished his residency) and it would be amazing to be around to hear of the highs and lows of that experience? Mack’s brother is now playing pro soccer, kicking ass and taking names as he does so. Wouldn’t it be amazing to go cheer for him from the sidelines? I could go on and on about why we decided this decision but I won’t bore you with all of the reasons and just say that family is number one and we’re so excited to be around them again.

Already this move is shaping up to be 1000x’s better than the move here to Florida. Not to shit on Florida but our move here really sucked (mostly in part to our apartment complex in Phoenix). We have been able to go through our apartment and de-clutter and figure out stuff that we don’t ultimately need. Another is we have picked a moving company a full month before the move and have all our ducks in a row. We’re so excited as we look towards the future and being within the loving embrace of our families and the northwest. As my Mom said in an email to me this week: “Getting excited about you coming back!”

Me too, Mom. Me too. More than words can honestly describe.

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