Grapes of Wrath - 21st Century Style

Well, it's the final countdown. In less than 96 hours the family and I will bid goodbye to our middle-America life here in Ohio and begin our journey to southern California. Like the Joads in "The Grapes of Wrath", we hope to find a brighter future and more opportunity in the golden state - specifically in the San Diego area. We aren't exactly leaving behind the Depression era dust-bowl existence the leading family in Steinbeck's masterpiece escaped from, but the economic atmosphere in southern Ohio isn't exactly conducive to those looking to prosper in these tough times.

I also get the notion that Fadi and I are perhaps simply nomadic by nature. Considering I haven't lived in my native Florida since "escaping" at age 17 in 2000, and Fadi has been displaced from his native continent for six years now, moving and starting over in a foreign land is nothing new to either of us. We do feel a little guilty about uprooting our six-year-old daughter - we live in the same town she was born in - but Fadi and I both agree life is simply too short and the world is too big to confine yourself to one geographic location for more than a few years. There is something to be said for "putting down roots" - but roots can also hold you down.

Although this will be a totally new start, I can't help but feel like I'm almost coming full circle. After leaving Florida to join the Navy the first place they stationed me 13 years ago was California - albeit the north-central area of Monterey. I hated it. But I was young and adjusting to being away from home. I return to California now a completely different person, with a much broader sense of the world and well versed in adapting to new environments.

It is difficult to leave our beautiful house here in Ohio that we built and worked so hard over the past five years to transform into our home, but Fadi and I made a pact long ago that we would live on the dark side of the moon as long as we had each other and were together. We have each other and our beautiful little girl and we are thankful and grateful for everything we DO have as many others in this world have lost so much. 

Now, I call our exodus "Grapes of Wrath - 21st Century Style" considering we will be traveling in a pair of KIA compact cars as opposed to the rickety truck the Joads drove. I also have a feeling Elise will find the journey much more bearable than the Joad children did with her Netflix connected iPad, enabling her to indulge in chain episodes of "The Fairly Odd Parents" between marathon rounds of Candy Crush.  

Fadi and I are excited to embark on this new chapter in our lives - we've sold practically everything we own so we almost feel like a newlywed couple just starting out. If nothing else - this move has successfully de-cluttered our lives, which I never realized until now is a particularly massive contributor to stress. We are currently sleeping on pallets in the living room in front of a TV that's sitting on the floor, and we are surprisingly content. We will be trading in a living space of nearly 2,000 square feet plus a basement for a 2-bedroom apartment of less than half the size in San Diego, but we are actually relieved. Less space to clean and manage and, hopefully, a more simplistic life will allow us more time to focus on the things that truly matter in this world.

However, if either of us end up sucking breast milk out of some random woman in a dive bar on the outskirts of San Diego we may consider rethinking our decision. (If you haven't read "The Grapes of Wrath" you probably think I'm really weird now.)