Suitcases, you have done your job...

Well, it finally happened.

After 10 weeks and eight different places that I have stayed at (which included four couches, a Motel 6, my little cousin's bed and two efficiencies) I have finally settled into my place that will be mine until I decide to leave.

The relief is enormous.

I really sat down and thought about this today at work and it's really incredible to me. For 10 weeks, I basically did what I could to get by without truly finding a place to call "home." I've stayed at other people's houses, family, friends, co-workers...I even spent a night in the clubhouse at the field! That being said, my 10 weeks have taught me so much about life. Here's what I've learned:

-Make sure that you realize that if you really think hard, you can make the best out of any situation.

Going across the country at first, I found it difficult to truly grasp the situation I was in. I enjoyed the drive and seeing so much that I had never seen before, but it was something else to experience so much hardship, like my incident with my car going up the curb in Texas and my travels in New Orleans that led to me needing a new car battery. However, what I realized was that I just had to keep going to get to my goal, which was to get to Florida to start my new job.

-You can only control what you can.

Everything in life falls into one of two categories: You can control them through your own actions or you can't control them. For me, one of the things I had a tough time dealing with was the fact that for me, this was less than ideal as far as my situation went. My whole first week was spent trying to figure out whether or not I made the right decision in coming out here. I didn't know anyone except Mike, and all I did was come home from work and sit in my bed all night long unless there was a football game on. I did what I could to find happiness, and I tried hard, but living in that motel for a week just didn't make me feel good at all.

It was only after I had made it down to Delray Beach to visit my Uncle Jay a month ago where we talked about how life has to be taken in a certain way. You have to look for good things in your life, and that there are things you can control, but the ones you can't, you have to accept. It's also imperative that you don't live in the past. If you made a mistake, you can learn from it and move on, but you can't dwell on it or it will eat you up. I did that a lot, thinking about so many things that have happened in my life that were bad, but in the end, what good does it do? Why do we do so much damage to our psyches by living in the past?

It's a question I've pondered for a while, and I'm looking for answers just like you all are, but I also realize that for me to feel truly happy, it is to accept what is around me.

Like what happened today.

I moved in to my new room. I unpacked all my stuff that wasn't in storage. It's looking pretty good, but the big thing was that I had all these clothes that needed to go up on hangers. So I decided I would go to Target and get some. I also decided to stop by Radio Shack to see if I could pick up a cheap RCA cable for my PS3. Since I couldn't find one, I just decided to head for Target. Only I felt my car starting to slow down on me. I saw the oil light come on, and thought that maybe I need an oil change. So I headed for the Jiffy Lube down the street, but when I got there, it was closed. Sadly, they wouldnt let me in, but the manager looked and saw that my oil was fine, but I had no coolant. Well, that would explain the heat coming from the radiator.

So I headed to Wal-Mart (Yes, Wal-Mart) to try and get some coolant when all of a sudden, the car just died on me. There it went. So, I put the emergency lights on and away I went, running to Wal-Mart as I talked to my dad, telling him what happened as I looked for a solution. When I got the Prestone, I started pouring it in to the car, and it actually worked out alright. The car sounded good in idle, and I thought that I had it all sorted out. Well, when I tried to get the car going again, I still felt it a little slow on the acceleration, and on top of that, I noticed it was still doing some of the stuff it did before. So instead of going to Target, I decided to just go back to the house, let the car cool down as I unpacked, and then head for Target to get some hangers.

Plan didn't work out as well as I thought.

As I went to turn the car on, it wouldn't start, and it's not like it was trying, either. I turned it, but it almost sounded like the car was grinding a bit. That wasn't good, so I just gave up and called my dad again, who told me to call AAA. So I did, and after figuring out the place to drop it off, I figured out somewhere close, and called the tow truck guy, who eventually came to pick my car up after an hour or so. When he got there, he thought it sounded like the timing belt might be done, which would make sense because my dad thought that might have been the issue from how I explained it to him. So he towed it away, and I had to get Mike to take me to work tomorrow. (Thank you, Mike. I'll pay you back somehow.)

So tonight, the crossroads of my recent life have finally come into play: For 10 weeks, I haven't been able to be settled, but I've learned to accept it. Tonight, I have to accept what I can't control, but I should also revel in the fact that I have a place that I can call my own and that it's MINE. I want to thank so many people for helping me get to this point, especially my friends and family who have helped me from afar, my Uncle Jay for his guidance, I want to thank everybody who gave me a couch or a bed to sleep on, no questions asked, and finally, I want to thank Mike. He and I have been through hell and high water the last 10 weeks, looking for a place to stay and dealing with many of life's hardships along the way. I feel that while neither of us weren't exactly weak, we became stronger through experiencing this stuff together. He's a great guy and someone I'm happy to call a good friend.

So, I'll settle into bed tonight and be ready to get up early tomorrow so that I can get to tomorrow's game against the Pirates. Fergie Jenkins, the Hall of Fame pitcher who became the first Canadian to be inducted into Hall of Fame, will throw out the first pitch, so that will be a lot of fun. I might even be the MC. But, if there's anything I know from all of this, it's that life's battle is to figure out the balance between control and acceptance. Good and bad, bad and good, let life come to me as is and I will fight for my happiness if need be.

It's a battle that I refuse to lose.