It's All Out in the Open

I'm an Oregon girl, born and raised. I've lived here my whole life (aside from a 1 month stint in Alabama). I was born in a "Cowboy" town. Home of a world famous rodeo. My family and I moved to a "Mountain" town when I was eight years old. My parents got divorced when I was fourteen and after that, my mom and I moved to Eugene. A total culture shock, going from 12,000 (if that) to 138,000 people. My high school went from 700 total kids to 500 in my graduating class. It was definitely a change. When I was 18 I moved with my really good friends (Mike and Kelly) to help them plant a church in a little town in Central Oregon called Prineville. This is the smallest town I've lived in.. ever. But it's a mix of Pendleton (the "cowboy" town) and La Grande (the mountain town) so I've felt right at home ever since. 

In 2009 I felt a calling to go down to Alabama (where my dad and stepmom moved after I moved away from La Grande) to fix my relationship with my dad. It seemed like I was being called to move there, but that ended up not being the case. I was finally able to forgive my dad, and we've been able to move on since then. Our relationship is probably the strongest it's ever been, other than when I was a little girl. After I decided that I was coming back to Oregon (after about 3 weeks down there) Susan (stepmom) took me to Florida. She said I couldn't get that close without going to Florida! She talked about moving there the whole time I was with them. I fell in love with Florida, and had a blast for a weekend. I went home a few days after that. 

Fast forward a year, and I'm finally in school, and I've matured a lot. More than most people mature in a year. I've always been pretty mature for my age, but 2009-2010 kicked my butt into high gear on the maturation process. I've been doing amazing in school, and I'm happy with where I am in life. This summer, I decided to start looking for a place to live in Bend so I could be closer to school. I had many places fall through. It seemed like when I was ready for it to be the right time, it wasn't happening, and when it was going to happen, I wasn't ready. So I ended up staying here in P-ville. I've been totally cool about it. I didn't freak out, or throw a fit and ask God why he wasn't giving me what I wanted. 

In August of 2010 my brother went down to Alabama to see my dad and Susan. They ended up taking him to Florida. They traveled all over Florida, and from the pictures and stories I've heard, they had a blast. Since then my brother and I had been joking about moving to Florida. "Oh, if I had the money, I'd be down there in a second." He would say.. "Well, let's go!" I'd say back. It was all jokes, for sure. 

Then a few nights ago we had a serious heart to heart. We both decided that we needed a big change. We are both young, unattached adults (other than his precious daughter who will have to visit for weeks at a time!!) and there's not really anything (other than our amazing friends and family) holding us back. I want to get my Bachelors in nursing, so I'd have to move away for a good school in the future anyways.. so I began throwing ideas out there for places we could possibly move. "Why not Florida?" Trevor said. So I started looking up schools in Florida with good nursing programs. His only stipulation was that wherever we ended up, it had to be on the Gulf side of the state. I could deal with that. Florida State University? Nah. Florida? In Gainesville? Nah. University of Southern Florida... hmm.. where's that at? Tampa.. huh. "Let's go to Tampa." I said. 

Since then there has been a ton of research done by both me and my brother. We found out the cost of living (surprisingly) is cheaper in Florida than in Oregon. Everything (with the exception of electricity) is cheaper in Florida than in Oregon. The worst thing we've found so far is the sales tax. But in place of state income taxes? Not a problem.We looked up the price of insurance, how much it would cost to get our cars registered and get new licenses, the cost of rent, pretty much anything you can think of, we researched. That had a lot to do with the hour of sleep I got that night. That and I spent a lot of time praying about it. I basically asked God this "If it's Your will, pave a path ahead of me. Make it clear." 

The next day, I called and talked to my dad and stepmom. I told them that my brother and I wanted to move to Tampa, Florida. My dad was a little apprehensive after I had "moved" to Alabama and left in a month. I talked to my stepmom after that and she was really excited. She said the following "I was just talking to your dad two nights ago about moving to Florida! I've been wanting to move there, but nobody wants to go with me!"

The plan that Trevor and I had was to move the summer of 2012 so that we could be financially stable before jumping into a place where we know absolutely nobody but each other. It was obviously the sensible thing to do. I told Susan that we were waiting until then and she asked if it was mostly because we wanted to have a safety net money wise. I told her yes, because that was the main reason we were going to wait. She said she wanted to be our safety net. 

She continued to tell me that they would sell their house and move to the Tampa area so that my brother and I can move down there THIS summer and have a few months to get things figured out and get jobs and whatever else we needed to do. She also said they would help us with moving everything down there. That's a 46 hour drive. Who does that?

I talked to my mom about this, and while at first she wasn't very happy about it, she completely understands. I need to be able to find out who I really am as an individual. No expectations, just a girl trying to find where she belongs. Florida is a change of everything. It's a cultural change. I'm leaving behind most of my family, and all of my friends. I'm leaving the only place I've ever known as home. But I'm moving to a new opportunity. A whole new ocean of opportunities. And I'm really excited. I'm excited that I'm going with my brother, and that I get another opportunity to be close to my dad and Susan again. I haven't seen them in almost 2 years. I'll miss everybody up here, but I already promised I'd spend every Christmas (that I can) up here in Oregon, and that I would pay for my mom to come down and visit me once a year as well.

I told Kelly tonight. She's obviously sad, but she's very excited for me. I told her a few months ago that I didn't know why, but I had a feeling I was going to be moving somewhere kinda far from home.. somewhere east. I wasn't expecting Florida, and I certainly wasn't expecting it to be this fast, but it's what's happening. When Mike got home, we could tell it had been a long day, so Kelly told me to wait until another time to tell him. Until he was chatty during her show.. and she blurted out "Brittany's moving to Florida!" He kinda shut up after that, and didn't say a word about it after that. But he's my hermano (brother), so I wasn't expecting his blessing [yet]. 

So that's the big news. I'm moving to Florida with my brother. In July or August. I'm starting the application process for school. I'm very excited. 

Sorry about the long post, but I figured after being so vague, I better explain myself.