A week from tonight, I thought I was going to be looking at the beautiful skyline pictured below. Back in one of my very favorite cities, my former home of 4+ years, my beloved Queen City. Instead... I will not be in Charlotte. Because well, life is like that. Today's blog post is a bit more personal, but I wanted to share a few things that have been on my heart lately, and an important life lesson I was reminded of through it all!
It's no secret that I've been
very homesick for Charlotte since moving to Vermont. Although things for the most part have gone well at my job, my personal life has been close to non-existent since I moved, and I really find myself longing for my old life back in the South. I write more about what my transition to Vermont life has been like in my
bi-monthly post-move updates (next one coming soon to the blog!), but I think y'all get the hint that it hasn't been an easy transition in my life outside of work.
I work 6 days a week, and lately I've had a lot of overtime hours as well due to extra radio events happening during the summer season. So between the homesickness and work getting very busy, I'd been feeling very overwhelmed. I'm not able to use PTO until December, but since I am putting in a lot of overtime this month, I decided to see if there was any way that I could take a "mental health long weekend" from work, to take some time for myself, recharge before work gets even crazier before the end of August, and most importantly, make a little trip back to the city that I miss so much. I'll give y'all the short version, but my bosses said YES!! I was so incredibly overjoyed. They totally understood everything I was asking about, which I was so grateful for. They gave me a weekend, and I officially had the dates. I was going "home!"
The first thing I did was text just about everyone in my phone contacts who still lives in Charlotte, to make sure they were around that weekend. I set up a
tentative blog photoshoot with Deeana. I confirmed which nights of the weekend I would stay with which friends. I even explored the option of renting a car, since I wouldn't have my car there (FYI: under-25 driver fees are NO JOKE and that would not have ended up being an option!). I brainstormed how much Southern fast food I could possibly eat in three days. I did
ALL OF THIS.... before ever looking at flights or flight prices....
The next day, I went to book my flight, and I thought that my computer was playing a cruel trick on me. Being originally from Maine, I'm quite familiar with East Coast flight prices, and I know what the average prices are to fly from CLT to New England for holidays, and also for regular times of the year. The prices that I was seeing were more normal for buying a ticket to fly during Christmas at the last-minute... not during a summer month with no holidays! They were
INSANE! I had miles with one airline that I was hoping to use, but I didn't realize that miles can't be used for trips booked under 21 days in advance, and this trip just missed that mark, so that option was out to help cut the cost down. For the next 12 or so hours, I searched every possible flight website out there, as well as other airports like Montreal. Everything that I was seeing was depressing, and 100% out of my budget. I've seen flights to places like California and London for cheaper prices than what I was finding from Burlington or Montreal to Charlotte for the weekend that I had off from work! Through all of my travel research, I realized that the airports that I often used to fly out of (Boston and Manchester, NH), are some of the cheapest in New England, and Burlington is often thought of as one of New England's most expensive airports.
I finally realized the next day that as badly as I
wanted to go back to Charlotte, and even though amazingly work had
given me a very rare weekend off, it still wasn't meant to be and wasn't going to happen. I have a very entry level salary right now, and about 90% of my paychecks currently go to paying Vermont's extremely high rent prices, as well as my broadcasting school payments. I don't have the type of income where I can throw around money on very overpriced, last-minute flights. And goodness, that was a tough, tough realization that was accompanied by a lot of tears. I felt very stuck and trapped in Vermont that day. Very not happy to be at work, very not happy to be in my apartment, very stuck all around.
I've since had some time to process everything, and wanted to share a takeaway that I had from this experience: d
on't count your chickens before they hatch! This of course is the title of the blog post, and has been one of my favorite sayings for a very long time. Obviously I didn't take the advice of this phrase at all in the way that I went about preparing for my weekend off. After ensuring that I had a weekend off, buying the flight to Charlotte was probably the most important part of the whole thing, and yet that was the part that got away from me in my excitement. I jumped ahead to the part about announcing the news of me coming, before there was news to announce!
This whole failed trip experience reminded me of when I was applying to jobs this past winter, and then later accepting my job here in Vermont. I was so hush-hush during the entire application process, as I didn't want to jinx anything. When I came to Vermont for my interview trip, the
only people that knew were my parents, my roommate, and my two broadcasting school directors- that was it! I didn't tell anyone else about the job offer until I had received my employment offer and things were official. And in that case- things turned out well! It seems like every past instance in my life when I have gotten excited and jumped the gun on something, it always falls through before happening.
I have been seeking comfort in my failed trip experience by trying to remind myself daily of things that I still have to be grateful for, namely the fact that even though I'm not headed to Charlotte, I still get to enjoy my
first three day weekend since starting work four months ago! I've also been re-reminded of the fact that although right now feels a lot like I am "stuck" in Vermont, this stage of life is temporary. I didn't make a lifetime commitment to being here, and if I learned anything from the past year, it's that a lot can change in a year! I also have been trying to remind myself that I would always rather be here in Vermont working at this job that I love with my talented and friendly coworkers, rather than in living Charlotte working at a job that I hated, struggling to get into the industry of my dreams.
Have any of you learned any life lessons or had any great realizations lately? Share with me in the comments- I would love to hear! 😊 Also- I have a survey running right now about upcoming New England (and Vermont!) travel content for the blog. It's only seven questions and takes just a minute or two to complete.
If you would take the survey here, I'd be so grateful!
God Bless,
xoxo Annaliese (or Charlotte XO on the radio!)
