Wow. We did it. We’re in Iowa. How did that happen? It all seems like a dream, even now. A fuzzy dream with a million blurry images mixed together.
Memories of packing a multitude of boxes then loading a moving pod with all our stuff, thinking the whole time we won’t have enough room for everything. Of trying to decide what we need and what we don’t, what we can live without and what we can’t. Of reassuring Reznor that, yes, we know what we’re doing—and hoping we sound convincing.
Of sharing a hundred tearful goodbyes throughout the month of July. Of the slow trudge through summer school and the rising dread of leaving Northpoint. The humbling joy of our going-away party with all our best friends and family coming out to spend one last afternoon with us, then that mountain-top feeling giving way as the last guests trickled out of our favorite hangout, Trustworthy Brewery, leaving Michelle and me to return to our empty apartment, tearful and overwhelmed with second-guesses. We fell asleep thinking about getting there.
