I love my life and the conduct of it. I’m not a perfect man nor experience life without conflict, but I love my particular style of life, which today consists of moving every few months to somewhere else to work various environments in a range of common and new tasks. I love the shifting locale and I often work with people I’ve worked with before. I have family all over the country and in some places around the world, and I consider myself blessed for them and the experiences I have gained in my short 30 years on this planet.

This life comes with its own pros and cons. Because life never stays one way permanently, I’ll take this season of pros and cons before my life changes and I adapt to a new set of good and bad. Life is often like that, and we so often lose ourselves in “today” that we forget that tomorrow will change, which is both a blessing and a curse.

Today, I am free of long-term drama, incessant grudges, friction from troubled local relationships, heavy bills and certain forms of ruts. I don’t have to look at any one person too long but am truly blessed to have built the friendships and working relationships with the people I have across the country. I love the work I perform and the places I get to do it in. I’ve stayed with valuable friends and made new ones, have kissed all three shores and seen more of this country in the past nine months than most people do in nine years. And for me, a born transient, the life is a good one.

I grew up moving around. It wasn’t something my mother particularly enjoyed, herself, but our life wasn’t always conducive to geographical stability. Before I moved out to join the Air Force, I moved more than thirteen times to states including Georgia, South Carolina, Florida and Kansas. As of today, including those moves, I’ve moved more than 44 times. I base moving not off address change, but by two primary criteria. If I live somewhere permanently, but spend at least two months somewhere else such as for school or a long-term temporary duty. The second is if I live somewhere and have nowhere else to go at that moment, then I count it as living. So the four weeks in Vacaville, six weeks in Monterey, four weeks in Pacific Beach San Diego … I count as having lived there. This is my comfort zone. To pack up, ditch my unneeded belongings and shore down only to what I need … it’s a skill and somewhat of a passion.

But it comes with its downsides.

Recently I’ve begun to tire with the concept of reintroducing myself to new people when I have yet to meet the person with whom it should matter the most. Over the next year, I will continue living the heavy transience I began two years ago when I left Marietta, but if all goes well, I’ll have a new job as a young officer and will finally plant myself for two or three years so I can get used to my new life and new career field. (I’m changing career fields, btw)

This isn’t loneliness. I do get lonely periodically, but this is more about actually anchoring myself with someone who knows me from the inside out and connects with me on that deepest of levels. I can’t imagine I’ll have a life where I don’t constantly interact with people I don’t know and oftentimes may never see again — some form of public figure or some such. I don’t know. But to have someone that at the end of the day, whether I’m at home or abroad, I can call and with whom I share all secrets and make that life-deep connection.

You know, a mate.

Not looking to run off and marry the first girl who will ride off into the sunset with me, of course. I’d rather take a lifetime to spend a day with the right girl than wait a day and waste a lifetime with the wrong one. Perfect girl? Absolutely not. Just a good one. One that works for me and my lifestyle, and whatever life becomes of that relationship — which will inevitably change my lifestyle, but you don’t set out to change, just expect it to happen.

I look forward to finding that anchor. I look forward to not having to share myself in order to feel the benefit of deeper connection. Someone who knows me and apparently might like or even love me. Crazy, I know. But I dream big, sometimes.

What in your own life is both a good and a bad? Do you focus too much on the bad and forget about the good? Are you riding the good and can’t imagine how it could go bad? The key is to understand that both will come, and that if you appreciate what both offer you in life, it will enrich and enhance. Like sugar and salt, both have their place in your life. Learn to embrace both and you’ll find more peace regardless of what comes.

Good night, all!