Revisiting Old Town Memories

I had to get up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed today for a job interview that was 90 miles away.
4AM I awake with anticipation.  6:30AM the cellphone alarm goes off.

Dressed.  Hygienically cleansed.  Fiber bar and water in hand.  14oz. coffee warm in the belly.  I'm ready to rock!  Turn on the car, get some gas and take the trek south.  For good company, I talked to a friend over the phone on the way down.  It helped calm my nerves too!

Sixty miles in, I pass by the exit to where I use to live.  I look to the West to see the complex nestled by the lake I often fished and paddled in, the park I use to bike in and the mossy trees I loved taking pictures of.  Seventy miles in, I pass the International Airport.  I watched a jetliner just feet above me fly over towards the landing strip.  The same airport that I flew my first plane.  Since a surgery that prior I was told I was never to be able to fly or swim again.  My first flight by myself.  A bit further south I pass an executive airport where I took my first helicopter ride reporting the NBC news.  I pass my primary physicians office, my beloved Bass Pro Shop, my church where I was baptized and taught classes at, and so forth.  Memories that took me back and I wasn't even at my interview yet.  These memories secured me in knowing if I were to get this job and move back, not to be afraid because not much has changed.  I could easily come back to it all.


I pull up to the business and walk in with a smile of confidence.  What a huge building!  Just as I imagined it!  A broadcast business that covers most of the areas radio stations and more.  I had a visitors pass and had to have a specific code to get in through the second double doors.  Such a formal secure corporation - but no complaints there!  I sat down with whom I was being interviewed by.  We spoke only briefly and told of what I can do and what my experience already is.  Overall, I think the interview went satisfactory.  A bonus someone from the inside recommended me.  It's taken me almost 5 years to get an interview with them, so you can just imagine how few and far between it is to even get an interview.  Just that foot in the door made me proud.  Not only where it can possibly take me, but even if I didn't get the job, I feel good about myself taking the risk of the time and money I really didn't have to go down there to do it, so I can get out of the pit I am in right now.  Any step is better than standing still, I always say!

On my way back north, I visited with my old company I had left to move to where I am today.  They were all so happy to see me (at least who was left there that didn't get laid off from the economic turn).  I stayed for quite awhile.  Apart of me didn't want to come back home where I know its lonely.  What a lonely little town, where my aspirations cannot be fulfilled.  Then, I went to see one of my good friends who is the most thoughtful of them all.  I met this officer years ago during an unfortunate event, but I can't say the event was all that bad because it brought me him.  A true friend who has been there when I had no dime to my name, taking me in at one point when I became homeless.  What friend do you know who will do that, no questions asked?  So, we talked for awhile; talked about a trip we will take soon, birthdays and of course asking about how our families are doing.

I look around me to see the complex I use to live in, surrounded by the mossy trees I loved taking pictures of, that line up alongside the lake I use to fish and paddle at and the park I use to bike in.  Memories that take me back.  Oh, how I could easily come back to it all.