Leaving

This week I moved out of my house in Jackson, and despite the fact that I am so so so thrilled to marry Dave in 2 months, I would be lying if I didn't say I teared up a bit.  Jackson has been good to me, Belhaven has been good to me and those roomies and friends have been good to me.

Law School was a very hard time for me.  I had a few friends but nothing nearly as concrete as my friend groups here in Jackson.  I was still recovering from an ended relationship and well, I was in law school, which is a lot of work!! I really didn't enjoy life then.

But Jackson was the completely different! I ended up here by default. It wasn't my first choice but I found a home and community and was involved.

I did not want to be single in my mid 20s but if you are going to be single, you might as well do it right.  And boy did we...  themed parties, wine nights, fun dates, bad dates, late night chats, chick flicks, ole miss games, trips, walks, etc.  Some of us have gotten married, some are in serious relationships, some aresingle -- but we remain good friends, because we actually were like substitute family for eachother.

As we were leaving, my mom said, "these were happy years for you" -- and they really were.  While I think if all of us were honest, we would have to admit that we always still wanted to meet the right guy, we were happy.  I felt like I was living life to its fullest.  Sure, there was a lot I wanted to change, but my life was still full of blessings.

I know as I am typing this that there are some people reading it and saying, "see singleness isn't that bad"  And the truth is that its still very frustrating.  It's still dissapointment after bad dates and worrying about meeting someone and breakups and lonely nights and concern over who should be your plus one. and feeling left behind....  I don't want to downplay the really hard parts...because they are hard!

But, at the same time, there are some really happy parts.  I know that wherever we move, I will likely not have a group of friends like this ever again.  We were able to totally become involved in eachother's lives.  We were the ones you sipped wine with after a breakup and the ones you went to dinner with  to celebrate your promotion....And that was such a blessing.

And although having roomies can drive you crazy at times (and trust me there were plenty of times when I was mad!), I think its also good preparation for marriage as you learn to hold your toungue, speak kindly, be patient and solve conflict.  (note: you sometimes learn from failing at these things!)  And you also get to know some really great girls.

As excited as I am to get a more permenant roomate in just a couple months, I am slightly sad to be out of the phase of life where I lived with girls and spent so much time with girls.  Sure, it had its moments of drama, but it was also so much fun.

I think I lost a lot in being single in my 20s, but I also gained a lot too.  Fabulous friends and great roomies was one of those things!