Last publish date: Three months ago.

Has it really been three months since I posted? Are you sure WordPress? Oh, yeah. It appears that is correct. I’ve been thinking about the major changes people go through in life and how often that prompts the thought of “Hey! I should start a blog!”, followed by months of penning nothing, and then suddenly remembering, “Oh yeah, I should get to writing on that blog”. Moving to a new country was a good prompt for me to document my experiences abroad, but sometimes life gets in the way, ya know?

With that said, a quite a bit has happened since May. I traveled back to Chicago to sort out the last of our belongings in storage. I took a break from work and stayed the entire month of June to get everything finalized. I did have a two bedroom apartment in storage after all, and the thought of dealing with that gave me anxiety every time I thought about it. By staying a month I gave myself time to handle this monster task.

The plan was to sell as much as I could, donate what I couldn’t, and ship the remaining things we needed back to the Netherlands. This process made me realize that I might be a hoarder. Not only did I have many instances of “What the hell is this and why do I own it?” but also moments of “Oooh, I purchased this in 1998 and rarely used it but oh how I love it and want to take it to the NL with me!”–I seriously had to channel my inner Disney princess and LET IT GO.

I also realized that by shedding all of our things in Chicago , I closed that chapter of our lives. Before June, we had things that still tied us to Chicago but with this last visit, everything became much more finalized. Not only was that weird, but it was a hell of a lot harder than I was expecting it to be. Goodbyes were more difficult this time, and the knowledge of life and relationships changing was rather tough on me. I actually questioned the decision to relocate when I was back in the States. What?!

Luckily, those feelings were fleeting and I still feel mixing it up and experiencing somewhere new was the right move. Change is never easy but it’s a part of this crazy thing called life.