Full Circle

Twenty-nine years ago next month, my family moved into a nice, little neighborhood that was just being developed. All of the houses were brand new and ours was the first one on the block to be finished. My mom recently did a Wordless Wednesday post showing the change in landscaping from the first summer there and this summer. I took the liberty of “stealing” the pictures from her blog for the purpose of this post:

Here is the backyard in 1978

Here is the backyard in 2007I was 3.5 years old when we moved into this neighborhood. As time went by, more and more houses were built up and more and more kids occupied the neighborhood. The summers were filled with tee-ball games, bike-riding, roller skating, and begging our parents to “please, please let us stay out a little longer”.

I lived in that house and that neighborhood until I was 22 years old (with the exception of going away to college for a year and a half and a 4 month stay in Arizona). In 1997, I moved out of my parents home for good and into an apartment in near-by college town with a girl my age. That same week, I started my brand new job, which I still have to this day.
After several more apartments and disastrous roommate situations, I eventually met and married my husband. We moved into a condominium for two years right about the time Care Bear was being born. We loved that place and we loved living in college town, but by the time Feisty was about to come around and our lease was about to run out, we decided we needed more than a two bed-room condo for us and our three kids. We began to shop around.
Three years ago, this week, we moved into the home we currently live in. On the same street that my family moved into 29 years ago. My kids run on the same sidewalks I run on, play in the same park I played in, and spend significant amounts of time in the house I grew up in.
The neighbors two doors down from my parents’ home moved in just a few weeks after we did 29 years ago. Their kids were playmates of me and my brother. They still live there… with their grown son, his wife, and their young son who is Feisty’s age. My children and his child now run the streets together and when I watch them playing I feel like I’m stepping back in time about 29 years.

This year marked the ten year anniversary for my job. When I first started here all of the people who have the same type of position I do were in several cubicles in an area right off of the reception area. The director of my office was located in the office I sit in now, her assistant was across the hall, and the mail center was downstairs. Not long after I started, our office did a major transition and we all got moved all over the place.

I recently told you about another massive overhaul our office has gone through by splitting our office up into two different buildings. And because of that, we are all being moved……again. (for those who have read me regularly and for a long time realize that this makes about five moves for me in the past six months.) This time, however, I am not complaining because….since I am now full time, I get a WINDOW. Yes that’s right. A window. The ironic thing? We are moving back to the same area we were in when I started ten years ago. The director is moving back here to where she was. Her assistant is moving back to the office across the hall where she was before. The mail center is moving back downstairs. My question to the geniuses who do the planning for all these moves is……“why don’t we look at the big picture from the beginning if we’re all going to end up back where we were ten years ago?!”

All in one week I am moving full circle in my office and celebrating three years of moving full circle back to my old ‘hood. Life can be crazy like that. Or maybe it’s what you call a rut.