Writing Letters to Myself and Scrubbing Headstones

Moving from California to Indiana was an emotional freak show. Most Californians/my friends figured Muncie must be the equivalent of an abandoned used-car lot full of corn, snow and misery. Since I had never actually been there, I couldn’t confirm or deny that fact.

In times of impending change or crisis I like to write letters to my future self while I still have some sort of sanity/happiness intact. So three days before my 2,000 + mile journey into the unknown I wrote out some lessons learned from previous moves and transitions:

From July 21^st 2010:

What is a transitional struggle?

·         It is something that has an ending.

·         You can’t avoid it completely but you can take action to lessen the pain and expedite the process.

·         It occurs when you have to get used to a life that is completely new from what you were previously living.

·         It is probably a requirement for living an interesting life.

High school ended, undergrad ended, your graduate studies are ending now, and one day Muncie will end. Transitional struggle is a normal and required process for establishing yourself in a new place. But let’s have a proactive struggle, let’s accept the struggle for what it is.

The end.

Anyway, over six months into it and I can easily say the experience has been nothing like I expected. I loved the town instantly, was accepted into a new graduate program, found a ton of awesome bars, tried many new things, found an unexpected way to make money (freelance writing), etc. Yes, my struggle has been proactive.

Before I found a job, I decided to spend my time learning and trying new things (if I couldn’t actually earn money). So I volunteer at a historical library where I get to handle 120-year-old handwritten documents and I volunteered with a preservation society dedicated to rehabilitating abandoned pioneer cemeteries (AKA scrubbing and reconstructing 140-year-old headstones). Stuff like that.