One year. It’s been a whole year since I moved to Portland, Oregon. A year ago today my dad and I were driving across Washington and Oregon in a U-haul to my new life. I remember we had to return the U-haul to some used clothing store and then find a way back to my apartment, since that was our only way to get around. Thank God for Portland’s amazing transit system or we’d still be walking to my apartment.
I remember before I had even moved here my first experience in Portland since camp, it was a very wet and unhappy one. My previous experience with Portland consisted of being downtown at the REI or at Rock Bottom Brewery with people who knew the city which was amazing. So when I visited a couple weeks before I actually moved, I was in the Hollywood District staying at a friend’s apt and so far off where I knew anything. The reasons I came over were to go to a Horizon interview and also to find a place to live. I had to figure out a way to get around Portland because my friend worked. Which was fine until…I got to the airport and found out that the interview was not in the airport it was on the other side of the runways on a back road, far away from public transit. I had made sure I had enough time to get from my friend’s to the airport and then find the interview room, but I didn’t plan on having to take a taxi from the airport to the operations center. So sadly I missed that interview. But we all know how that story turned out and it was much better to wait till I was settled and then go to the interview anyway.
After missing the interview I went back to my friend’s apt and started my journey to finding an apartment. It was not a pretty adventure to say the least, back then I didn’t know how much it rained here or that there are a lot of double streets (i.e. Burnside St. and Burnside Ave). So picture this, me in nice interview clothes and high heels, the weather outside…well let’s just say it’s was the wettest day in Portland’s history; at least from my new Portlander eyes it was; and I am taking public transit to a place in NE where I have never been, in a city I don’t know anything about. Needless to say I got so very lost in an area that wasn’t even close to where I was trying to go, walking around in heels in a torrential downpour. I walked around for maybe 45 minutes in a random residential area and finally gave up a found a bus stop hoping that it would take me back to downtown so I could get back to my friend’s. It was not a happy day but now I look back and laugh because I should have known not to wear what I did and to ask for help. To this day I still have no idea where I ended up, even though I have tried to back track my steps to see how far off I really was.
I remember trying to get around Portland for the first couple months and just being so confused about where I was most of the time; which is hard to do because, not to brag, I am really good with finding my way once I have seen a place one time (photographic memory). I remember taking the MAX to work every day and being a little scared of strangers on the MAX stealing my purse or me. Haha, I can laugh at that now because it's not even anything I think about when I randomly take the MAX. It's normal. Although now I have a car and have no real need for taking the MAX when I do it's a great resource to save gas…not time, haha. I can pretty much find anything even if I miss a street or two I can still get to where I want by taking a different way then was planned. I love being able to get myself around without getting lost and being able to give directions when asked and to know where it is. After a year I can say that I am a true Portlander/Oregonian.
So much has happened in the last year. Looking back I can’t even believe how much has happened. Whether good or bad here it is:
• Discovering how much I love God!
• Getting an interview with Horizon and then making it through the 8 hour interview.
• Getting the call that I’d been hired as a flight attendant. (Nov. 29th, 2007)
• Finding out I can’t pee on command…drug test for Horizon. (See myspace story: “Pee in a cup?!”)
• Surviving flight attendant school; even when I had the flu with a 101 temp.
• Getting a 96% average in FA school; best day ever; “hey mom I realized something, I’m smart!”
• Working the holidays at Macy’s.
• Buying my first car.
• Losing my roommate after two months…grrrr.
• Zack; both wonderful and very awful.
• Finding PDX4 (Portland Foursquare Church).
• Living alone for five months:`(
• Discovering who my true friends are.
• Falling in love with my job.
• Getting my first great comment card.
• Meeting Sara and becoming roommates.
• Over nights in some pretty sweet cities.
• Discovering how much I love to fly.
• Having hair extensions.
• Not being sure I was meant to be in Portland after all the hurt happened.
• Finally making genuine friends at chruch.
• Trip to La Paz and Cabo with my parents.
•Trip to San Diego with Shawna so we could go to Sea World! (sea world, sea world, sea world, lalalalala)
• Redemption with an awesome friend!
•Many trips to Spokane just because I can.
• Trip to Whistler with my mom.
• Joining my churches worship team.
• Becoming a part of a church as an adult, all on my own.
• Making new amazing friends!!
• Finding out more about who I am and what God wants me to do.
It is even more interesting to see how I’ve changed:
• I am more focused on where God is taking me than ever before.
• I found a passion inside of me that I didn’t know I had.
• I learned how to be a responsible adult and also still be my goofy self.
• I am continually learning how to be great at customer service.
• I have become more of an introvert than ever before.
• I love being outside more and more.
• I know how I should be treated by a man and also what is unacceptable.
• I gave up my addiction to TV and am so much better for doing so.
• All I ever want to talk about is God and what he is doing.
• I am learning how to cook more than just spaghetti and salads.
• Reading has become a favorite hobby of mine.
• I am more of a morning person than…well anybody ever thought I could be. I can now get up at 3am without three alarm clocks for work on a regular basis.
• I never miss a day of work unless deathly ill.
• I try really hard to be on time to everything. I’m still working on that one.
• I love going to church, not for friends; although they are a bonus; I go to discover more about God.
• I figured out I am not like who I thought I was and who I was trying to be.
• My strange affection for airports has grown a lot over the year and now I don’t even mind getting stuck in them for hours on end.
• I am not defined by who I was in college or high school.
• As the year has gone on I have realized that I have no desire to act immature.
• I have usually always known what I want but now I am continually seeking what God wants.
• Most of the time I can confidently vocalize my opinion.
• Working out is one of my newest hobbies
• I don’t mind being odd or a bit awkward.
• God has been teaching me that being myself is more important than hiding behind other things that don’t matter.
• More uncertain about my future than ever before; and that scares me to death.
Here at my side wherever you fall In the dead of night whenever you call Please don't fight these hands that are holding you My hands are holding you And I, I love you And I want you to know That I, I'll love you.
-Tenth Avenue North (By Your Side)
No comments:
Post a Comment