Life Is A Rollercoaster

Current Location: Tualatin, OR

Remember when I asked how boring life would be if it always went as expected? Well, we could use a little boring about now!

We should have recognized that the high we were on was simply the ride up to the top of the rollercoaster; little did we know that the top was so near and the only way left to go was down.

Last week was a bit of a tough week for us. In a nutshell, the owners of the campground in California did a 180 degree turn and decided to manage the campground themselves, essentially putting us out of a job. Unfortunately, in order to reach that decision, it took several days of discussions with frequent changes. In the end, they did offer us the opportunity to return in a much reduced role, but we ultimately made the decision that it was no longer a good fit for us and we walked away.

I think we experienced just about every emotion in the book over the course of only a few days, but what felt like eons. Shock, disbelief, hurt, anger, insulted, confused, sadness, dejected, betrayed, overwhelmed, grief and finally some level of relief that we could start to put it all behind us. We still don't entirely understand what happened, nor how it could have deteriorated so quickly, but we walk away with our heads held high knowing that we did everything in our power to try and make it work.

It's just another reminder that we can't control other people's actions; we only have control over our own reactions. We know that this whole ordeal will only make us stronger. We will learn from it. We still whole heartedly believe that everything happens for a reason and that this just wasn't meant to be. None of these rationalizations make it any less painful, but with each minute that passes, we are feeling better and have begun to find some positives in the situation.

We don't know where we are going from here, but we recognize that there are oodles of options. We remind ourselves frequently that that is yet another beauty of this lifestyle - we are not limited geographically or weighted down by possessions. We already have some strong prospects and will hopefully have some good news to report soon. In the meantime, we have extended our stay in Portland for a little while until we can figure things out. With the current price of gas, it didn't seem to make sense to aimlessly drive around. We need to focus on finding a job and that's much easier to do while stationary, even though it pains us not to take advantage of our free time. We have our whole lives; we don't need to be in a hurry.

For those of you who thought about visiting the campground this summer, we would still encourage you to do so as it is a beautiful place; unfortunately, we just won't be there to greet you.

The road of life is full of curves and speedbumps. Some may slow us down, but none will ever stop us from moving forward!