by David Hoffman
My handwritten words, in a notebook:
Wednesday, March 12, 2003, 11:40 a.m., San Diego, California.
Sharon and I have lived in our apartment for a year and seven months, but today is the last day. Movers are carrying our furniture and boxed belongings downstairs and loading them onto a truck. Nearly all traces of our time here are gone. Our car is downstairs on the street, full of our things, ready for a long trip.
People have told me they think our decision to move from San Diego to Maryland is a courageous one. These comments acknowledge the sacrifices involved--of temperate weather, proximity to friends, a familiar situation--and also the risks. I'm the president of my own nonprofit organization, but ... my income is next to nothing. Once we're in Maryland, I'll have to raise money quickly and, most likely, find a job that will pay the bills. [The job I ended up finding a few months later--at UMBC--turned out to fit my interests and personality so well that I ended up shutting the nonprofit down.] We don't know that we'll like living in Maryland.
And there is a war about to start. The slow process of dismantling our apartment and saying goodbye to all that is familiar in San Diego has been matched, in time and in my mind, with the Bush Administration's eerie and unsettling, and often nutty and embarrassing, push for war against Iraq.
I really don't think of our move as courageous. It reflects a choice to live for something other than just our own comfort and convenience. My hope and dream is that my nonprofit organization ... will be able to do wonderful and valuable work from its base in Maryland. At the least, I hope to find inspiration, new ways to make contributions to the general welfare, and opportunities to hone and implement my emerging vision of a healthy, vibrant democracy in which each person feels that they are fully alive and able to change the world around them. Moving to Maryland is a no-brainer. San Diego is comfortable, but [for me, right now], it's also a place to stagnate and rot.
This apartment is where Sharon and I began our life together as a family. For that, this place will always be in my heart. But I'm certain that it's time to go.
Co-Create UMBC is a blog for and about UMBC, written by David Hoffman and Craig Berger from the Office of Student Life. Join the Co-Create UMBC group on MyUMBC. Like Co-Create UMBC on Facebook. And follow David and Craig on Twitter.
My handwritten words, in a notebook:
Wednesday, March 12, 2003, 11:40 a.m., San Diego, California.
Sharon and I have lived in our apartment for a year and seven months, but today is the last day. Movers are carrying our furniture and boxed belongings downstairs and loading them onto a truck. Nearly all traces of our time here are gone. Our car is downstairs on the street, full of our things, ready for a long trip.
People have told me they think our decision to move from San Diego to Maryland is a courageous one. These comments acknowledge the sacrifices involved--of temperate weather, proximity to friends, a familiar situation--and also the risks. I'm the president of my own nonprofit organization, but ... my income is next to nothing. Once we're in Maryland, I'll have to raise money quickly and, most likely, find a job that will pay the bills. [The job I ended up finding a few months later--at UMBC--turned out to fit my interests and personality so well that I ended up shutting the nonprofit down.] We don't know that we'll like living in Maryland.
And there is a war about to start. The slow process of dismantling our apartment and saying goodbye to all that is familiar in San Diego has been matched, in time and in my mind, with the Bush Administration's eerie and unsettling, and often nutty and embarrassing, push for war against Iraq.
I really don't think of our move as courageous. It reflects a choice to live for something other than just our own comfort and convenience. My hope and dream is that my nonprofit organization ... will be able to do wonderful and valuable work from its base in Maryland. At the least, I hope to find inspiration, new ways to make contributions to the general welfare, and opportunities to hone and implement my emerging vision of a healthy, vibrant democracy in which each person feels that they are fully alive and able to change the world around them. Moving to Maryland is a no-brainer. San Diego is comfortable, but [for me, right now], it's also a place to stagnate and rot.
This apartment is where Sharon and I began our life together as a family. For that, this place will always be in my heart. But I'm certain that it's time to go.
Co-Create UMBC is a blog for and about UMBC, written by David Hoffman and Craig Berger from the Office of Student Life. Join the Co-Create UMBC group on MyUMBC. Like Co-Create UMBC on Facebook. And follow David and Craig on Twitter.
