Earlier this year, I got a job in a new city. It was a big promotion and so I was super excited and I also wanted to check off a thing off my 1000 things to do in 1000 days. SO....we bought a house, in a new city that we had never lived in, that we had never commuted to work in. So needless to say- it was not the best decision of my (our) life. The city we have moved to is Nashville. The traffic is AWFUL. One of the main freeways that takes me to work and back is always a parking lot. I have to leave at 6:30 AM if I have to make it to a 8 AM class. So yeah- this sucks. This post is however not about how awful traffic in Nashville is. This post is about why I bought the house, why I want to sell now and how that makes me feel and what we need to next.
First lets explore why I bought this house. I think it was to prove to myself that I could. That I, an immigrant from India, a Hurricane Katrina evacuee, a Ph.D. holding-but-still-struggling with visa issues-scientist in this country COULD have the American dream of apple pie and a house. I could also have just been checking it off the list of things I should have acquired at the ripe old age of 36.
So, we bought the house, we moved in, we were excited about it for like 3 weeks. Then school started in earnest, I was behind in preparing lectures and grading, I had to eat healthy, cook dinner at home all nights, exercise and LET the dog out and feed her at 6 PM every night because GUILT. WHEW! Just writing all of this seems exhausting how the heck did I manage to do that while dealing with 2 hour traffic jams? OH YEAH- I am a superwoman! Umm no- I whined and whined about it. Sometimes my husband would come home early, sometimes I would just feed the dog at 8 PM and sometimes we would just eat out. All in all, not the American dream I had envisioned for us. OR maybe it is exactly what needs to happen, but my dream was all rosy and unrealistic? (Who KNOWS?).
Its a few weeks before the new year and now we told our realtor- can we please put the house on the market and see what happens? So guess what? Its on the market. We have had 2 families visit and we haven't heard anything. Talk about nerve-wracking. I don't think I have ever cleaned the house this much!. Not that it needed cleaning, because its still brand spanking new, but you never know what the future buyer wants. I am consciously trying NOT to look for houses close to work now, because that is more complication I do not need, but of course keeping in mind that renting in this market is just STUPID. So yeah! We have a few exciting weeks (months!) ahead of us. I will keep you posted, but most of all, I want to say to whoever is reading this (and its ok if its just ME), but it is OK to make mistakes, there is no perfect blueprint of rules that gets handed down to us that we have to follow. We have to do what we feel is right for us in that moment. In the moment when I decided to buy without much thought, I wanted to feel like I could do this, be an adult and take a BIG decision, in the moment that I wanted to sell, I felt like I was being pulled in too many directions and that my quality of life could be better if I lived close to work. Today, in this moment, when I am sharing this with you, I am not necessarily looking to seek validation, but when I read this years from now, I want my future self to realize that I was worried about nothing. That this too shall pass.
Toodles,
S
First lets explore why I bought this house. I think it was to prove to myself that I could. That I, an immigrant from India, a Hurricane Katrina evacuee, a Ph.D. holding-but-still-struggling with visa issues-scientist in this country COULD have the American dream of apple pie and a house. I could also have just been checking it off the list of things I should have acquired at the ripe old age of 36.
So, we bought the house, we moved in, we were excited about it for like 3 weeks. Then school started in earnest, I was behind in preparing lectures and grading, I had to eat healthy, cook dinner at home all nights, exercise and LET the dog out and feed her at 6 PM every night because GUILT. WHEW! Just writing all of this seems exhausting how the heck did I manage to do that while dealing with 2 hour traffic jams? OH YEAH- I am a superwoman! Umm no- I whined and whined about it. Sometimes my husband would come home early, sometimes I would just feed the dog at 8 PM and sometimes we would just eat out. All in all, not the American dream I had envisioned for us. OR maybe it is exactly what needs to happen, but my dream was all rosy and unrealistic? (Who KNOWS?).
Its a few weeks before the new year and now we told our realtor- can we please put the house on the market and see what happens? So guess what? Its on the market. We have had 2 families visit and we haven't heard anything. Talk about nerve-wracking. I don't think I have ever cleaned the house this much!. Not that it needed cleaning, because its still brand spanking new, but you never know what the future buyer wants. I am consciously trying NOT to look for houses close to work now, because that is more complication I do not need, but of course keeping in mind that renting in this market is just STUPID. So yeah! We have a few exciting weeks (months!) ahead of us. I will keep you posted, but most of all, I want to say to whoever is reading this (and its ok if its just ME), but it is OK to make mistakes, there is no perfect blueprint of rules that gets handed down to us that we have to follow. We have to do what we feel is right for us in that moment. In the moment when I decided to buy without much thought, I wanted to feel like I could do this, be an adult and take a BIG decision, in the moment that I wanted to sell, I felt like I was being pulled in too many directions and that my quality of life could be better if I lived close to work. Today, in this moment, when I am sharing this with you, I am not necessarily looking to seek validation, but when I read this years from now, I want my future self to realize that I was worried about nothing. That this too shall pass.
Toodles,
S
