Every journey begins with the first step. In this case, the first trip, stumble, wipeout, and smear across the road. Perfect is not a word I aspire to, "perfecting" is one I embrace particularly when it comes to life.
I took my life of 36 years living on an island in the middle of the Pacific, from overly comfortable, safe and known and ripped it out of the ocean. I placed my life tenuously in the hands of the Bay area this past November. I tried to write about the relocation process when it first began, the awkwardness of not knowing my surroundings and not having "my stuff", my people and uncovering the eye opening myriad of unknowns made it incredibly difficult.
When you know your home, you have your people and you know your path, there are few questions and much routine. Take a lifetime of that and toss it across 2,382 miles of sea and what you have is chaos, unending questions and an identity crisis. While the home, the stuff and our life came together, my youngest moved to Tahoe and I felt one more upheaval just before Christmas. Great! Another round of chaos.
I'm happy to say, I've adapted decently in the less than 9 months since I've arrived. I'm still unnerved by how much the Mainland has changed. The growth. The congestion. The crime. While I've traveled frequently throughout my life in Hawaii, nothing prepared me for living on the fringe of a world class city. I'm where I dreamed I'd be since the 80's, just south of Napa Valley, Sonoma, and the Russian River Valley. That in itself is magnificent.
Join me on the journey of adapting to a new life, my 5th industry reinvention and learning how to fit in when you hardly know where you are. We'll have the drama and trauma of going from a Metropolitan island to the North Bay of San Francisco and a JUMP into the Wine Industry as I continue to morph my career, change my life and begin to realize that dreams do come true...
It's already getting exciting and I'm thankful to those magical souls who have been so welcoming.