How did we end up here? (Part 3)
When I was a senior in high school there was a big debate in the Nashville area over whether to use public funding for a stadium that would be the home of what was then the Houston Oilers (now the Tennessee Titans). Being a non-taxpayer and football fan at the time I was 100% in support of the idea. (sidebar – that’s not to say I wouldn’t support it now, I would just be a little more cautious than I was when i was 17).
A very specific memory I have from that year was riding in my friend Allen Salmon’s powder blue 1974 Volkswagen bug and cresting the hill from north Nashville on I-65 South where the skyline of Nashville comes into full view. You first see the 2 antennae of the “batman building” sticking up like goalposts, then the rest of the city comes into view. We made this drive a lot that year, and every time we crested that hill we would raise our arms and yell “touchdown” in the best way that any enthusiastic 17-year-old can.
As Vanessa and I finished the drive to Nashville and the skyline came into view I felt the sudden urge to be that 17-year-old all over again. It was from a different angle (coming in on I-24 East) and the city’s grown some since then, but it was home. I was in familiar surroundings. We would be surrounded by family. We were even returning to a rental property that Vanessa and I had rented early in our marriage, so we knew exactly what our house would look like. Even though there was uncertainty in our future, we could relax for a while.
We arrived in town on Thursday, February 4th. I started handyman work on Friday, February 5th. Vanessa was hired as a psychologist the next week and I landed a more steady job working with Blackberries that started the next week. The wireless industry was never on my radar before this move, but I’m such a tech geek that it’s a great fit for me. By Friday, February 12th we both were gainfully employed AND our Iowa apartment had been subleased so that we would no longer have to worry about rent payments or utilities for a property we were not living in!
Each small thing falling into place made it feel as though we had definitely made the right decision by moving back to Nashville. But there was still this idea that I wasn’t doing what God really wanted me to do because I wasn’t leading worship…
so, you’re picking blackberries for a living? that is so renaissance, dude. I love it! (j/k – i knew what you meant)