HELLO SEATTLE (AGAIN)

I am a girl with a plan. I have short term plans, long term plans, lengthy to-do lists and organized spreadsheets. And then sometimes, my plans get flipped upside down in a huge way, I'm left thinking, how in the world did my plan, which I was so sure was everything I ever wanted in life, become so far from what was actually best for me?

I never expected to be living in Seattle again after college, and I've never been so thankful to be so wrong. My plan was to be back in my sunny home state of California, away from the rain that I had such a hard time adjusting to. But now that I live here again, 100% because of my devastatingly handsome husband, who grew up here and who also went to college here, I cannot imagine my life any other way. It's so exceedingly better than anything I could have ever dreamed of for myself.

When I stop to think of how sure my plans were, and how my life turned out so opposite, it makes me laugh. It makes me want to write all my plans for the rest of my life in whiteboard marker, easily erased and rewritten in a single swipe. I think I know what's best for my life, and I work that plan out like my life depends on it, but then something unexpected happens and everything turns upside down in the best possible way.

My life in Seattle Part 2 has been in some ways, completely different from the first-go, and in some ways, exactly the same. My husband and I both have a huge network of friends here, and because of that, our life is so rich. We have friends that feel like family and family that feel like friends, and that gift alone is enough to make me deeply thankful, every single day. My husband and I thrive here, and so do both of our careers. A part of me will always miss California and my family and friends there, and sometimes I still feel like a foreigner in this city, even after a combined total of 7 years of living here, but overall it is so much better than anything I thought I wanted.

I feel like this happens to me, over and over again, that my plans aren't actually the best plans for me. And every time I continue to be stunned, both mildly annoyed but mostly so amused that once again, I got it all wrong. I'm thankful to be living my most-oppositely planned life everyday, and for how it's so crazy good I could cry with happiness just thinking about it. I hope I learn this lesson someday, to hold all my plans so loosely, because there could be something so much greater on the horizon, that I can't even imagine yet.