While you might think anything between last July and now is a pretty major change in the status quo, it’s really just been the past week when major changes started happening. I’m going back to Memphis (with Bryan in tow, of course) to start a job writing and editing for Ducks Unlimited. I’ve been gone from there since the first week of January and, in the time since, I’ve had one six-month fellowship with Scripps’ UX department and started one job with the University of Tennessee.

But in all that, I’ve been dissatisfied with my career path. Sure, there were good parts about everything I did along the way. I enjoyed being able to combine numerous different skills in my previous job at DU. I enjoyed tinkering in Photoshop at Scripps. And I enjoyed getting to experience a bit more of the “proper” way of doing front-end development at UT.

The most recent of those experiences, though, reminded me how much I miss the writing and editing aspects of my previous jobs and of my education. As my dad put it, I’ve always been a writer. (Well, ever since my 7th-grade art teacher told me I wasn’t good enough to copy a certain painting for an assignment, but someone else in class was allowed to. That’s when I realized I’d never be an artist. So I decided to be a writer instead.) I started out a poet and short-story writer in middle school, then moved on to blogging in high school and college. And even though a lot of that writing was about me and my life, people still seemed to enjoy it and identify that as my talent, along with my eagle-eyed wielding of a red pen.

So I’ve decided to leave the world of HTML and CSS mostly behind me (though I think they will be valuable allies when it comes to things like being able to perfect press releases before sending them to the masses or posting things online) and focus on those elements of my personality and skill set that I’ve been neglecting. Finding a position at DU that allows me to do this is truly fortuitous—what better way to get your foot in the door of a new career than with a company that already knows and respects your work? And they do. It’s been said and shown time and time again in a number of different ways. And while it means pulling up shallow roots in Knoxville and moving AGAIN, I can’t bear the thought of missing out on the challenge or continue to slog through work I no longer enjoy or think I’m particularly good at in the grand scheme of things (front-end development).

Change is hard. And it’s going to be hard for a while, especially if new and unexpected things crop up along the way. There are plans to buy our first house in Memphis. We’ll be getting married this fall. His family’s trip to New Jersey happens in June. There’s definitely a lot on the agenda for the next year, so I have a feeling I’m going to need every ounce of energy I can sum up and then some. I just hope it doesn’t break us, our relationship or our spirits. As easygoing a guy as Bryan is, things like moving stress him out, and I don’t want my stress to compound his and create a force outside of our control.

But I’m staying positive. There’s a reason for all this, and, if nothing else, I know I will learn a great many things and enjoy being close to the friends and family we left behind in 2010.

I went to Memphis’ Minglewood Hall to see The Avett Brothers in concert Thursday night. It was a band I’d heard and liked in passing, that graces my Pandora stations on a regular basis. But I can sing along to only one song.

Several local Twitter folks mentioned they’d be attending the show, and though I had no one to walk in the door with, the cheap tickets and desire to see a great band live won me over.

I pow-wowed over coffee with a coworker beforehand at Otherlands, getting a pep talk that encouraged me to “strut” when I arrived at Minglewood, seek out the Twitter friends, show them who I really was and just how cool. I won’t say I strutted, but I was tracked down by two of the nicest Twitter kids out there, who just happen to be engaged to one another.

The show was the best I’ve ever attended, by far. The opening act, Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers, was more than enough to get me primed for the Avetts, replete with hot harmonica playing and energetic guitar strumming. I ended up purchasing one of their albums, since the Avetts are more easily found on the Internet.

But the main event was just… beyond words, really. I’ve liked the few Avett songs I’ve heard over the past year, but their live performance is leaps and bounds beyond that. They are everywhere at once, switching up instruments and singing so clear, so beautifully, I was blown away. They did sing St. Joseph’s, which is the one I can sing, so I was happy for that bit of familiarity.

They also sang a new one called January Wedding, which almost had me in tears. It was so sweet, so poignant, so simple about falling in love, having it feel just right without trying, knowing it will all work out. I’ve never felt that way myself. Every relationship has felt like a struggle. And sometimes it was because the spark wasn’t there, because we were trying to force something that just wasn’t going to happen. But often it was because I wasn’t OK myself, because I was forcing MYSELF to be something I wasn’t, to be perfect and beautiful and fun, when I just couldn’t be without wearing myself out from the stress of it all.

The Avett concert worked to lift my spirits quite a bit. To be around new people, to hear great music, to be inspired by the whole event – I’m so glad I went. It’s something I need to keep doing, to stretch my boundaries and live my life. I look forward to the next show.