10 years

Yesterday at work I was presented with my 10 year service ring.  I started my job here back in 2000 a week or two after picking up and moving to Florida.  When I think back to that time period it was really a pretty bold move, probably one of the boldest things I ever did in my life.  I relocated to Florida with no job lined up.

Ali had work but it wasn’t anything that was going to be workable long term, it was up in Venice, over an hour away.  I clearly remember the excitement and anxiety about changing everything I have known as familiar for the first 32 years of my life.

Luckily for me it all worked out as I got a call for the interview here during our drive to Naples.  After a year in an apartment Ali and I had our modest home built that we have lived in ever since.

The past 10 years has gone by incredibly fast.  It seems impossible that I have been in Florida for a decade already yet that is the case.

Living in Florida hasn’t exactly been what I imagined it would be prior to moving.  I had visions of me playing volleyball all the time, going to the beaches often  and living in a tropical paradise where troubles are far and few between.  Reality has been a bit less rosy.

Florida summers are something that truly need to be experienced.  It’s not that it gets significantly hotter than a PA summer, it just goes on for twice as long.  On the flip side, mild winters are simply fantastic.  I no longer have the seasonal depression that used to bother me so much, I found other things to depress me instead. 🙂

You would think that living in paradise would naturally make people more friendly and happy.  Unfortunately I have seen about the same percentage of shitheads in Naples as anywhere else.

Despite it’s warts, living in Naples overall still was a huge upgrade for us over living in PA.  I would never consider moving back there.  If this last 10 years went this fast I can only imagine how quickly the next 10 years will expire.  Who knows where I will find myself by that time?