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September 25th, 2009 | Jeff Zutant
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I've been home for a month now, sending out resumes and trying to reestablish some income. For the first time since I was twelve, when I began delivering the Gazette to my Norbeck Meadows neighborhood, I find myself out of work. And, I am not ashamed to admit it: I'm on unemployment, but I've been paying into it for 24 years. I don't think six months is too much to ask.
Now the hard part: Taking what I've learned and applying it to what I want. I'm not whining. There is no "poor me" attitude, and there's a new vigor in not settling. If I need to sell the house, so be it. It's worth more than I paid for it and I have nothing to prove to anyone but myself. Travel writer, photographer, TV host, whatever.. just something that I love. (I couldn't have picked more long shot jobs, huh?) So, I don't fall back into old ways, that's what I am pursuing. But first, I need to wrap up the last trip.
I consider the first stop on the trip to be Avon, CO where we stayed with friends and I really got into being out of my element. So, I need to finish with one more trip, to Avon, NC. It's on Hatteras Island in the Outer Banks. It's one of my favorite places on Earth. If you haven't been there, I suggest a trip. I look upon my yearly visits as a pilgrimage, where I go to recharge and find quiet. It's where you can read a book on the beach and, if you time it right, not see another soul. While I live on the bay and love the aura of a water town, the ocean is different. It's not something specific to me. More than 50 percent of the U.S. population lives within 50 miles of the coast. I think this is something that's leftover from the days we crawled out of the murky waters of a prehistoric Earth and struggled to survive. It seems to be imprinted on our DNA. (For those of you who believe in Creationism as fact, then God made you go to the ocean. One more thing to those same people: explain fossils to me.) I seem to be getting a bit off track here.
This long journey of 2009 is one that I can never forget because of the impact it's had on my life and my outlook upon it. But I need to digest all of this. I came home different than when I left and I really am still trying to get a handle on everything I have seen. The house looked different and continues to change, but I can tell you, I missed my home. Along the way, I saw places I could easily live. That doesn't mean Maryland is any lower on my list. There is nowhere I've seen that's as green as this place is. The air has a different scent and taste to it. The water that surrounds this place is evaporated into the breeze and gives off a slight smell of the salty sweet water of the Chesapeake. The frogs and locusts have this harmonic chorus that puts you to sleep every night, but the only time you notice it is when it's gone. I didn't realize that until I tried to go to sleep in my own bed for the first time in 45 days. I just stood out on my deck and listened. Home. Nothing like it.
I guess I will always call this state "home." That doesn't mean I won't live anywhere else, but this is where I have most of my memories.
Just a couple more days and I will be gone again. Coming full circle. Avon to Avon.
I will finish up there and touch on the future.
Related Topics: Avon, Colorado, Hatteras Island, Jobs, Maryland, North Carolina, Outer Banks
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