Sweet Home Alabama Disease

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be." ~Douglas Adams

I'm sure most of you watched the movie Sweet Home Alabama with Reese Witherspoon (sidenote: love her!). Well, remember the part of the movie where she is sitting in the Coon Dog cemetery with Jake? She tells him, "I love my life in New York, Jake. But I come down here, and this fits too."
She's speaking my language. I feel exactly that same way---there are so many different paths that I could take, all of which are very different, and all of which I could be happy going down. I refer to this as the Sweet Home Alabama disease. And I'm a chronic sufferer.

I tend to blame this on the fact that I'm genuinely a happy person. (We all have our crosses to bear...) Really though, no matter where I am or what I am doing, I'm going to make the best of it, enjoy it, and find a way to be happy about it. But that trait, I think, is the main cause of the Sweet Home Alabama disease. When you can see yourself happy in any circumstance, choosing the circumstance you want is difficult.

So.....in looking at my life, I feel sometimes like I'm stuck chosing between New York and Alabama (figuratively speaking) a lot of the time.

If you have read the blog for any amount of time, you know of my love for San Francisco. I lived there for a summer and had the time of my life. I worked with and became friends with great people. The city is amazing and beautiful and so full of energy. I loved my apartment with a view of the bay. I loved watching the fog roll in in the afternoons. I loved the food at the tiny mom and pop places on every corner (even if I did continually order grilled chicken). I loved the Farmer's Market on Saturday. I loved my life in the city.

From the blog, you also know about my passion for agriculture and how much I love my family's farm and ranch. I love the wide open spaces, the animals, riding horses, being around people who I have known my whole life. It's a complete 180 from San Francisco. High heels to cowboy boots and trolleys to horses. It's peaceful and quiet and you can see the stars in the sky. And my family has owned it for over 50 years. I love working with my family to make decisions about what to plant and what to breed to and guessing what lambs are going to bring the most at the sale. I love my life in the country.

My current city is great too. I have lots of friends here, my legal connections are here, the weather is amazing, my job is great and I love my condo. It's been a wonderful decision for me to start my career here! It's great being close to home, but living somewhere big enough where I can do things like going to Hot Yoga or concerts on the weekends or being able to go shopping without driving an hour and a half.

And, for our final example, anyone who knows me whatsoever knows that I refer to Stillwater, Oklahoma as the Happiest Place on Earth. That town will always be home to me. I love the college town feel and how everything is always covered in orange, game days, the beautiful campus, my wonderful church, close to the Oklahoma Girls and my SoulMate Friend and her adorable baby, Little Linebacker. I could completely see myself living there....small town America at its finest.

And these are just a few examples......there are lots of other paths or places or things I could chose to do, that I truly think could "fit." Last week I went to Omaha for the first time...great city...and I loved the Swiss countryside two summers ago!

Maybe Jake answered the question in the movie. He said, "Who says you can't have both? You can have roots and wings." I hope that's true, and that somehow I can figure out how to have the best parts of all the different paths my life could take. Because those best parts would make a pretty amazing life!