Next Stop: San Diego
This time last year, I wrote down my New Year’s resolutions. I only had two: read more and move my family to the West Coast. I am humbled and thankful to report that I now read 2-3 books a month and we are moving to San Diego on January 13th! Where’s the marching band? Where are the doves breaking free from a cage and soaring high into the heavens? Only then could you see how I feel inside.
I lived in Los Angeles in 2017. Have you ever tasted a food for the first time, but you instantly know it's your favorite? That’s how I felt when I stepped foot on the Santa Monica pier. I walked to the end of it, breathing in the sweet and salty ocean air. When I reached the end, looking out into the Pacific Ocean I could feel my spirit rest. Yes, this was my favorite. I felt at home.
There was only one thing missing. My children. They were in the Dominican Republic while I was living in LA, and so my experience was filtered with a great longing in my heart to do and be with them. Being a mother is a part of my fabric. I’ve lost the ability to do anything fun without thinking, “I wish my girls were here.” So, that was a constant thought while I grew roots in the city where movie magic happens. Every day was a new adventure. I’d hike Runyon Canyon Mountain, go to Venice Beach, or just walk down Melrose Avenue and wait for fate to do its thing.
In 2018, I moved back to Fredericksburg, Virginia with my daughters after a family tragedy made it clear that the West Coast was not destined for Chapters 2018-2023. During those years I reared my daughters into beautiful, strong, and faith-filled young women, wrote seven screenplays, began deep development to produce my script, "Son of a Preach" into a feature-length film, quit drinking alcohol, and began writing my memoir called, Plot Twist: From Broken to Breakthrough.
If there’s a lot of anything in Virginia, it’s time to write. We moved to Midlothian, Virginia in 2022. It's a quaint and quiet town. The running joke in my household is “Where do you wanna go tonight? Walmart or the movies?” In this mix of trees and suburbia, you’re either spending money on food at Walmart to sit down and eat, or, you’re at the movies, sitting down and eating their food. There’s a lot of sitting in the state for lovers. I personally, have sat down enough for a couple of lifetimes. That’s when I knew it was time for a change.
You know it’s time to do something drastically different when life loses its color. What was once fun feels draining and what used to get you going, doesn’t even lift your mouth into a smile anymore. Oh yes, I call it the 'been there done that’ syndrome, claiming joie de vivre at an alarming rate. If you’re feeling this way, you may not need to move across the country but might need to move in a different direction. Think about the last time you genuinely smiled, feeling the joy come up from your feet and dance into your mind. What were you doing? Find a way to do it again, and more often.
It was summer 2023 and I had lost my zeal. As a writer, you can only pen so many fiction stories until you begin to feel like your make-believe characters are living better than you. Forget social media envy. I wanted to live like the people I wrote about. And so, I made the leap. My first step in the direction of my dreams wasn’t hunting for a home, or snooping around Google Earth to superimpose myself in California.
The first thing I did was… say it out loud. “Girls, our lease is up in December. And I would like to move to California.” That’s it. I gave it life.
I believe that words have insurmountable power. They are the energy of life and intention. For so long, I was afraid to tell anyone about my desire because moving 3,000 miles away as a single mom with two children in high school is no small feat. However, at that moment, I divorced “Can’t” -- that word is no longer in my dictionary. When my daughters agreed with glee and clapped at just the idea, that’s when the wheels began to churn.
So, here I am, lying in bed on Christmas Eve. The house is packed up and mostly empty, and I can feel the jubilation brewing in my heart for our future in San Diego. We found a wonderful high-rise apartment, fitted with a 24-hour gym, lounge on the 40th floor, pool on the 10th floor, and bakery on the ground level in the middle of the downtown East Village. Chapter 2024 is already filled with so much promise. Timing is everything. And dare I say, it’s time to fly.
