If the Glove Doesn't Fit, You Must Trade It

This is a heads up to all whom it concerns.

I'm getting out. Out of Macon? Maybe. Out of Georgia? Maybe. Out of this dire funk? Most certainly.

For the first time in a while, I'm doing for myself and damning the consequences. Letting go and surrendering to a force bigger than me.

It took a little while but I eventually go to thinking about what I do well and what I do that makes me happy. Happy in a content sort of way. Then I went looking for ways to incorporate these things.

Now, for six years or so, I've known about a particular outdoor youth rehabilitation program. It requires a two-year committment and for various reasons, I haven't felt like I could give that much of my time... until now.

So I became reacqainted with the program and applied. Three interviews later, I'm on the threshold of moving to Florida. All I need to do is clear my background check, visit the camp where they want me to work, and be sure I want to work there. Oh and the camp staff has to like me, but what's there not to like?

This is the path I hope I'm taking. I could certainly use two years of doing meaningful work and two years in semi-isolation from the world. Lately, I've been trying to pare down the unnecessary things in my life hoping to get a jump start on this. That doesn't mean I'm getting rid of good friends and sentimental things, but it does mean I'm reconsidering what those things mean.

One of my favorite fringe benefits will be increased health and fitness. I'm giving up smoking for starters -- pardon my progress, I will be a little testy. And I'm beginning with a few walks, then jogs and runs. Throw in a few push-ups and sit-ups with a handful of flexibility exercises. Wham-o, I'm thirty pounds lighter.

Mostly, I just don't want to kill myself trying to be the Brawny man.

In the event that this opportunity falls through, I'm doing what I can to be prepared to continue with this wave of momentum by lining up potential jobs that spread from Atlanta to Athens and even the possibility of remaining in Macon. Nothing is off the table as I'm even considering work with the Democratic party as the elections near. Who knows where they want to send me.

And I move forward. Just trying the best I can to be better than I am now.

Should I find myself on the road again, I hope to see everyone I know and love before I go away. If I can't, no worries, I won't be in total isolation and will have the chance to visit every so often. Maybe I can get a couple of you all to move to the beach, get a house, let me pay rent to hang there on my time off.

Or, I could just see what happens. Yeah.