Going Forward

Deborah didn’t look in the rear-view mirror as she drove out of the driveway of her home for the past 20 years.

“Don’t stop. Don’t look back, just keep driving,” she said gripping the steering wheel as she looked straight ahead wide-eyed to stifle her tears.

The “sold” sign, still swinging in the breeze, marked a close to a chapter of her life.   The new chapter was both exciting and terrifying at the same time.

She sold most of her belongings, except a few mementos, photo albums, and some family antiques, plus some clothes and her computer.  Everything she could fit into her car and a small pull-behind U-Haul was packed in for the cross-country journey to a new place, new job and new life waiting ahead.

Just like Mary Tyler Moore’s TV character, Deborah decided to change her life completely with a long-distance move, leaving everything and everyone behind.  Memories of a bad marriage.  A home she loved, but could no longer afford.  And a career that had hit a hard brick wall.  It was as if all signs converged on one option – move.

Driving the endless miles of highway, the black pavement and white and yellow lines seemed to showed the way forward, like the yellow brick road.

Given the 3-day journey, she would have plenty of time with her thoughts.  She smiled and laughed as she remembered the wonderful going away party.  Her friends gave her little fun gag gifts like a bottle of sunscreen that was empty so you could fill it with rum and a bikini-body t-shirt printed on both front and back.

Other memories were more difficult, like sorting, packing and selling everything she owned.  What to keep? What to sell? What could she take?  Clothes were easy…she didn’t need any of her cold winter garb.  The furniture mostly had to go.  She was moving into a much smaller place and didn’t need much for one person.  Plus, not a lot would fit in the U-Haul.  Luckily, she hired a professional sale company to do the deed.  She would never have been able to sell her valued possessions in a yard sale to strangers.

Saying goodbye to friends and family was difficult too.  Her kids were all over the country now.  “They all promised to visit me,” she thought.  “We will see if that happens.”

She smiled with anticipation as she considered her new job.  After 15 years as a copy editor for a regional newspaper, she could not get a promotion to field reporter, so she was stuck in the newsroom all day just reading all the fascinating things other reporters wrote about.  First, they said she was too inexperienced.  After all, to them she was a part-time worker, full-time mom.  And when she became the queen of the newsroom who everyone relied on, it was the kiss of death, she was too valuable to be promoted into the field.  Then they said she was too old.  Finally, she said enough and sent her resume and some stories she had written to every newspaper in Florida and someone answered her prayer.  She couldn’t wait to dig into her new territory and find some interesting stories.

Why Florida?  If you are having a life-changing event, you might as well be warm and sunny all the time, Deborah thought.

Driving the last leg, she reflected of the small snapshot of the country she’d passed on her journey. She’d seen plains, fields, mountains, rivers and eventually, she found what she was longing to see….pure sunshine.

She looked up and saw a big orange sign that said “Welcome to Florida.”

“Don’t stop,” she smiled as she drove forward.  “Keep going.”