Bittersweet memories

I always hate when December 8th rolls around each year. It's one of those days that is of personal significance to me, though it probably shouldn't.

9 years ago today is the day my family left Sioux Falls.

For a lot of people, they'd see that sentence and say "big deal, so what?" I often wish I was one of those people. For me, leaving Sioux Falls tore my life apart.

I was born in Sioux Falls, grew up there. At the time, I'd only lived in 2 houses within living memory. It was where all my friends were, where my church was, where my life had been built around. To be virtually torn from my roots was rather traumatic for me. Having it happen on two months notice didn't help any either. I knew my family would be moving at some point, but we'd all expected that it wouldn't be until after I was in college. At that point, it wouldn't matter a whole lot to me -- I'd already be gone.

I think that the worst part of that move was losing all my friends. As far back as I can remember, I've always been a person who had many acquaintances, but made very few friends. Those that I did make were close friendships, and were the only close contact I had with anyone other than my parents and sister. I'm honestly not sure how long it took me to recover from that move. I certainly didn't until I was at LeTourneau, which means at least 9 months. I'm honestly not sure I've recovered completely even now. I still have only 1 or 2 people I would call close friends, and I'm not sure how close they really are.

Language Barrier

Alone at last.

My roommate's parents and sister flew in from Puebla, Mexico for the 21st-29th. While it was nice to have someone around from Christmas, it was also frustrating. They usually spoke English when addressing me, but anything else was mostly in Spanish. I took Spanish back in high school, but was never any good with it. I might catch one word in ten--enough to catch the general idea of the conversation, but that's it.

While they were here, they did do one large piece of good: the house is mostly packed. Nacho's family turned his life into shredded paper and cardboard boxes. I'm progressing more slowly, but that's OK since they used all the boxes, and I've got until the end of the week to pack. We're not really moving until Saturday, so I've got plenty of time.

For the move, things have hit some bumps. The apartment company doesn't like that Nacho's having house payment problems, so they and he are wrestling over whether he can move in now, or after the house is sold. Either way, I should be able to sign the lease on Tuesday.

Happy New Year.