Escape from SoFla

It is no secret to my friends and family that I have been plotting an escape from South Florida for some time. It's not that I so intensely dislike my home city; my roots go back several generations here. It's not the predominate Latin influence... (no, seriously... I've made some lifelong friends here- and the cuisine will be sorely missed). It's mainly because I'm at an age where my wife and I want to pursue the American Dream©: OWNERSHIP. I don't presently command a 6-figure salary, so acquiring a decent piece of real estate in the Miami home market is a fantastic notion. A utterly vain hope. A pipe dream.

Well, this life-altering event is coming to pass very soon; my 14-year employment as a Systems Administrator will end on March 31st. Lately life seems a bit surreal, more like a thrilling adventure ride... think the Incredible Hulk roller coaster at Universal Studios, without the "Gamma Force Accelerator". Anyway, it's a somewhat imposing new reality where nothing is certain anymore, which is both invigorating and frightening at the same time.

The subconscience is a mirror reflecting your true thoughts. The nocturnal theater in my mind has been featuring a play where I'm being told by unseen entities that my death is near, or has placed me in an act where I'm telling friends I've got only a week and a half to live (coincidently my departure date), or even this scenario in which my coworkers already think I'm dead, and being surprised I'm not. Due in part to my long-gone metaphysical days, I was totally accepting of imminent death in this morbid dreamscape; it actually seems to be a universal symbol for change or closure, regardless of culture or spiritual orientation (or lack thereof). In truth, it seems very appropriate for this chapter of my life; I can only hope my new life will be slightly funner than dying.

Anyway, I'm not the type of cynic who would just leave my visitors hanging on such a downer, so here are some relevant quotes regarding change I found inspiring.

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power."
-- Alan Cohen

"Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death."
-- Anais Nin

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future."
-- John F. Kennedy