Another year passes by; Nick becomes a quarter of a century old.

As I look back and remember my last birthday I remember: that is the week when the realization that I couldn't afford to live in Hattiesburg past the end of 2003 hit me. I began making plans, announce my quitting to the church, tell my roommate that I would be moving out by the end of December, pack up my stuff, and move in with the parents.

It was a depressing time; the thought of living in Butler, AL and at home with my parents was not a happy one to me. I love my family, I don't want to live with them again. The next few months were far more dreary than the weather.

In a way, though, it was a time of hope. I'd been struggling, off and on (more off than on), with thoughts of leaving the church, and possibly the ministry altogether, and this was an answer to those questions. Can't afford to make it on the money they give you and can't find a second job? No way you can continue living where you are and doing what you're doing.

Christmas time saw me leaving Hattiesburg and going to my doom, it seemed almost. Butler, AL. I hated that town, I still do. I never liked it. My parents tried to make the best of it for over three years (nearly four) but never adjusted to the strangeness of it all. That is where I was moving. I'd spent three months there a couple of summers back and hated every day of those three months. I was prepared to hate every day of the indefinite period I was to spend there, now.

The next month was spent sorting through things and getting settled in. Also made a trek to Nashville, TN with Mike Springstead, meeting up with my sister and Mike Roderick out of Georgia there to see the Britten War Requiem with Don Frasure singing. Amazing concert, made the gloom of the past few months since graduation go away for a while, indeed.

About a week later I had plans to drive to Augusta and see Die Fledermaus with my sister and grandmother. I decided, instead of visiting for a few days, I would move there. Nearly a year later, I still live here.

I got a job, at the coffeeshop my sister works at. I found a church I love (well, I already knew about the church, First Presbyterian of Augusta, as I had visited it a few times before) and things were getting better.

A year since I realized I had to leave my church and Hattiesburg behind, I am a manager at a coffeeshop, singing in two great choirs (FPC and the Augusta Choral Society) and have some great friends. My family has moved here, as well, and dad is at a church here. A church with a much better vision than the one in Alabama. A city that is much more forward thinking (for a southern town, at least). And my little sisters are living near me! (That's the best part.)

It's been a good year, indeed.

What will the next year bring? I don't know. I want to do graduate school at USC still, though I still have not fully decided if I want to do musicology or choral conducting. Just when I think I'm leaning to one side, I look longingly at the other. Perhaps there is some way the two desires will fit together in the end, I know not.

I need to find another job, with better hours and better pay and benefits. We'll see what happens there.

I want a dog. I have Goldie here right now, until my parents find a house to buy, but she will move back with them at such a time as that. I want a Welsh Corgi (I think Cardigan, the Pembroke looks kind of odd with no tail...).

I would love to find a girl. It gets lonely at times, and I've never had one before.

Well, that is for the next year to bring, we shall see.

Right now I'm smelling red beans cooking, listening to the Rutter Magnificat (got CDs in the mail today from Amazon: Rutter Gloria and Magnificat, Vivaldi Gloria and Bach Magnificat, and Dvorak (don't feel like looking up that carat thingy) Stabat Mater (The Rutter Magnificat and Dvorak are works the ACS is going to be doing over the next few months and the Vivaldi is one we did this past performance (already had the Faure Requiem). Mmm good music, good food. Going to see the Augusta Symphony tonight. Life is good, life is good indeed.
- posted by Nick @ 11/13/2004 03:48:00 PM | 0 comments