A Year in Ohio: a retrospective

This week officially marks a year in Ohio, 2500 miles away from the state I called home for 24 years. It was a move that turned heads and alienated many a friend and family member from me. However, it opened many new opportunities for travel, adventure, and exploration of different career paths and social environments. Thanks to this move I have been able to venture through the Northeast and parts of the Southeast United States on my motorcycle. I have met many people that don't have the "big city" mentality and are friendlier because they can be. Perhaps I can consider that to be a good thing, however this stay in Ohio is a vacation that I would like to end.

In some cases the peace and quiet can be nerve-wracking. There are days when I do miss being in a constant state of movement and always having "something to do." To make for that I find more things to do that are more worthwhile. It was a risk to leave and a daring move to start anew in a place so far away. We left because we couldn't afford CA. We left because starting a new life together in CA would be impossible. I chose to leave to break away from 24 years of being told, "No, you cannot do this. It's not proper, and why can't you be the perfect daughter." As a result of my desire to do what I want I will be punished until I choose to conform to tradition and structure.

I know my decisions will always be criticized and torn apart by others, and with time I will be convinced that this move was well worth the gamble. At least, for the most part, I am not alone in this journey.

Someday I hope to return home to CA. By that time it'll be a different world where I am forgotten and sent to the pages of old memories and shades of the past. At the least when my two wheels touch the West Coast again, I will still have the ocean, the twisted roads that overlook it, and the flashbacks of a stage of life that has run its course. I know one thing is certain; nothing is permanent and things can be lost in an instant. You deal and move on.