The Revolving Door - Brady

In the comment I made about Amy's last post, I referred to our potential apartment as "having a revolving door." Here are the wonderful circumstances and coincidences I hope will make that the case:

- Kevin and I lived in Chicago for two years before we moved to Fort Wayne and loved it.

- Many of our siblings and friends heard us talk about how much we loved Chicago. A year into living there, Kevin's sister Lesley called us and said she had accepted a job offer downtown.

- Lesley got together with Paul, my now future-brother-in-law and all-around great guy, right before she moved to Chicago. He accepted a job in the suburbs (sorry Paul, I can't remember exactly which one - Barrington maybe?).

- Lesley and Paul got engaged and bought a condo in Arlington Heights, a suburb northwest of the city.

- Kevin and I moved to Fort Wayne.

- Paul switched jobs and started working downtown near Lesley.

- Missing Chicago a lot, I looked especially hard at graduate schools there.

- Kelly, missing her home region of the country and loving Chicago too, applied for jobs in Chicago and New York and preferenced Chicago.

- On February 6th at 7:37 p.m., I got a text message from Kelly saying, "I got the job in chicago!!"

- On February 11th at school I got an email from the professor I applied to work with at Northwestern asking me to call him. After a brief interview, he told me I'd been accepted.

- I still went to a recruitment weekend both there and at University of Michigan to make a more informed decision, but chose Chicago pretty quickly - I emailed all of the schools where I'd applied on February 26th to tell them where I was going.

- Amy told us she was going to look for jobs both in Chicago and La Porte. The three of us decided to live together if we all ended up in the city.

- Roger, Amy's boyfriend, found a job in Lombard, another Chicago suburb.

- After a lot of conversation, Kevin and I decided he would continue with his job in Fort Wayne and that we would travel back and forth to see each other every week.

- We broke the news to our families that I would be moving to Chicago, Kevin and I would be living apart half of the time, and that I'd be moving in at least with Kelly.


So there it is. I've got my husband, all of my siblings, siblings-in-law, and siblings' significant others in my favorite city at least part of the time. The apartment will be crazy. Kevin will be there often, Amy will be there either all or part of the time, and I bet Lesley and Paul will come stay with us if they're in the city late and need a place to crash. Add to that all of our friends who we want to come and visit and our parents (especially my dad, the city wanderer), and it will be a full house!

Going Away Party - Brady

Sigh.

I had two sad but fun after-school events today. First, we had our "transitional" Student Council meeting where one groups' duties stop and the next year's groups' jobs begin. It was really cool to see how much the kids have changed over the year, especially the leaders. You know that saying about trying to be as good of a person as your dog thinks you are? Well, sometimes I think you can replace "dog" with "nice high school kid." Some of the sweet ones just make you feel awful about all the times you've been grouchy to the not-so-sweet-ones.

Then I had my going away dinner with my department at Don Chava's, a restaurant in town. They are really good people and a big part of me regrets not staying longer.

Moving is feeling very real today. Not all in a bad way, but very real.

The Chipster - Brady

I finally stopped being a bad daughter today and bookmarked a website my dad writes a column for (www.whatsnewlaporte.com). Reading it clarified for me one reason I'm nervous to embark on this transition to grad school and beyond.

My dad is exceptionally involved in La Porte, the town where he's lived his entire life, minus college. If he reads this he'll probably roll his eyes, but he actually does really cool stuff there. He knows everyone in town, he was on the Park Board and is currently involved with an organization that provides services for disabled people, he broadcasts all the high school sporting events, and he now writes the column I wrote about above. 

I'm really envious of that kind of community involvement. After college, I lived with my parents for a year in La Porte, then moved to Chicago for two years, then to Fort Wayne for another two years, and now I'm going back to Chicago for four to five. I have no idea where I'll end up after grad school. All of this moving means I just start adjusting to a place, developing my routine, getting comfortable with my friends, and then I leave. 

In La Porte, for example, I'd work out at the YMCA (where I'd invariably see somebody from high school), get cokes from McDonald's and Propel from Walgreen's, and go to Hilbish, this locally owned drugstore in town, at least once a week. I was able to meet my mom for lunch and for walks home from work and help out some Spanish-speaking families in town by translating and tutoring. In Chicago, Kevin and I went to the same farmer's market all summer, movies in Grant Park, and a great neighborhood bar called River Shannon as often as we could. I'd walk a different route to my El stop through the beautiful neighborhoods around my apartment every day and never get bored. Now, in Fort Wayne, I've got my running routes, yoga class, baseball team (Go Tincaps!), favorite restaurants, a bar (Columbia Street West) where I know I will stay up way too late dancing if I set foot in there on a Saturday night, and really, really good friends. I'm even figuring out yard work. And I'm leaving again.

At first finding new routines in new places was exciting, but at this point I'm pretty tired of all the upheaval. I would love to be in a place long enough to do the kinds of things my dad does.

Okay, enough whining about having cool opportunities to live in cool places. :) There will be plenty of time to settle down when I'm older. And I really am excited about Chicago - don't know if you can tell that from all of my belly-aching posts.

It's coming... -Amy

I have had a realization recently at how quickly things are actually changing for me. Ok, maybe a few realizations- three to be exact.
Number one: This coming weekend is my "official" gradution weekend. I will be done with college, and my degree will be in the mail. See you later, IU. That was realization number one.
Number two: Roger, my boyfriend, moved to Chicago yesterday. I knew this was going to happen, but for some reason, I thought it would never happen. He is staying with a friend until he gets his apartment finalized, but none the less, he will NOT be living in La Porte anymore. This is so great for him, and I am very excited. However, I realize now that my time to move is quickly approaching as well.
Number three: They are posting job openings for next year now. I was in the stage of "they won't have anything posted for awhile" for so long that I NEVER thought I would get to the stage where my applications should start being answered. Uh-oh. Let's just hope some of them are.

I am so excited and happy for everything that is going on, but it's very strange that in less than a month I could possible be signing a lease in Chicago with my lovely sisters. I could be starting to set up a classroom in 2 or 3 months. A classroom that will someday be filled with children that I am responsible for teaching.

Yikes.

It's good.

But yikes.

:)

And Backs and Forths

I know exactly how Kelly feels. She and I have been having really similar experiences over the last two years: first and second years of teaching, adjusting to cities that are really more like suburbs, and making the hard decision to leave the classroom after only a short time in it. Our current dilemma is just another of those similarities.

Here's my situation. I agreed, pretty enthusiastically, to move back to Indiana when my husband found a job here after being in Chicago for two years. Once I got here, though, I had a huge problem adjusting. I missed living in a big city A LOT. I would even say last year, the first year we lived in Fort Wayne, was the worst year of my life (part of that had to do with being a first-year teacher, which is pretty stressful).

Then, the best imaginable thing happened. I applied to several PhD programs and, after a lot of work and waiting, started to hear back. I was accepted to the University of Michigan, a program I felt unbelievably lucky to have an offer with, and got excited about the possibility of moving to Ann Arbor for a few years. Then, I heard from Northwestern, a school I thought was more than a long shot for me. It turns out the stars had aligned so they were looking for someone with my set of interests and qualifications, and I was accepted. This meant moving back to Chicago, the place I had convinced myself was my real "home," moving in with one or both of my sisters (I was still sad about living apart from Kevin, but the fact that they would be there made me feel a lot better), and going to a great grad program studying exactly what I wanted with a professor who couldn't be a more perfect mentor for me.

Imagine my surprise, then, when a couple of weeks ago I started to second-guess my decision. Spring was starting, so all of a sudden our house, yard, and the city itself looked really pretty. My classes started going really well; I felt like I was hitting my stride as a teacher. I had a couple of great weekends with friends in the Fort Wayne area. I really started to imagine that I could stay here long-term and be happy as a high school teacher.

However, I still truly believe I made the right choice - that staying here is the easy and safe route while moving back to Chicago is a challenge that I'm ready for and that I'm supposed to take. I also believe, as my mom told me when I called her upset about this the other night, that "the day after I schedule a haircut appointment, my hair always looks great." I think there are good things about any place, and it's natural to feel sad about leaving. I'm sure that once I find an apartment, move, get into a routine with Kevin's visits, and settle into school these worries will disappear.

- Brady

Biggie Figures Out the Internet

Ha, okay I really don't want to go by "Biggie" forever on this blog.

Yay, I figured out how to post! Thanks to Kelly for getting the blog set up.

I am super excited to live with Kelly and Amy. However, in the last week or so my naturally nervous personality has made me have...hmmm "second thoughts" is too strong of a word...but quite a bit of anxiety about this big life change.

It's not so much a problem with living away from my husband Kevin or about the work grad school entails. I'm not sure what's getting me - I think it's a realization that I'm making a pretty big, somewhat final life choice (pursuing a career as a professor). I think it's also just nerves about the unknown. I never deal well with that.

So, hello blog-world. My name is Brady and right now I'm feeling very nervous but also optimistic. I think if you keep reading you will discover that's my mood most of the time.

-Brady