Beginning of the end

It's official. This week marks the beginning of the LAST week Michael will work for Mercedes. Friday is his LAST day, his very last day to walk into that place. Not only that place, but any dealership for awhile to come. To say he's excited is an understatement. I don't think I've seen the boy in this good of a mood since he started working there almost 4 years ago with all his ambition.

I thought I had a picture to show his graduation from Mercedes to show where he was wen we started this journey, and all the promise he had in front of him. And I don't, not on this computer. Better anyway, because that was such a long time ago and so many opinions and hopes have changed since then. He's ready to move on, I think we both are ready to be done and start the next thing. I feel like this whole experience is such a process, a process of giving up all the older dreams and coming to the realization they will never come true and trade them for a new set that are so far different from the original ones they seemed foreign at first.

Foreign because they have such a different destination from our original dreams. But I guess that's life for ya, you get older things change and the places you thought you wanted to end up change, because you change, you grow and mature as well as your relationship and circumstances. I wanted THIS house, this life, in this state. And I've realized those things are never going to happen. This house will never happen, I had it for a little while...and it was wonderful when I had it and when I thought this was what I wanted it was perfect but as our ambitions grew this house became too small to hold them and I realized this place was a hindrance and was only going to old us back because of our finical obligations. And it was a hard conclusion to come too, because I put my heart and sole into this house. This was everything I wanted for SO long, and in the beginning it almost defined Michael and I. This was the first this we REALLY worked for, I mean work HARD for. Saved so much money, put so much time and effort into, and I was so proud of. I was proud of what it looked like, and what it meant. And I still am. I'm proud that we were here, we did have this.

And now we will move on... Onto uncharted waters and uncertain territory of the Air Force. Will we like this new adventure? Will we want to stay in and make this a career? I can't say. What I can say is it'll be our stepping stone for the next few years, it will eventually get us to a place where we want to be. Michael WILL have his degree, we won't have ton of debt to get it, I will have the option of being available to my kids 24/7 if I so wish, and my masters may be in the works soon too. There will be more sacrifices along the way, more heartache as I'm sure (especially when Mike gets the call that he's being deployed for awhile because it will happen at some point) but the hope is at the end of all this we'll be in a better place. We'll be able to come home again if we chose and have a better life to come back too.

So here goes the beginning of the end of this time, this place, and this dream... And onto newer dreams.