Letting go

I live in Alabama. Thats old news as of January. Really though, I haven't lived here the whole time as I was gone for the entire summer for various reasons. When I returned to Alabama in the fall, I began the process of becoming an Alabama resident. When I lived in Georgia, I was a student so I never had to change anything from Ohio. Now that I work here, get bills, my paycheck and like, your guess is as good a guess as mine as to how long I'm here. Regardless, I needed to begin the switch to actually be "living" here.

I stared with my insurance stuff and got all the taken car and then moved to my plates. Its a slow process, because you need all these documents and they need to be signed over and in the right name, right address, and it just takes time. When I had that, I was able to get my new license, which lets note I hate my picture. I really liked my Ohio picture and I'm not crazy about my Alabama picture, but oh well! Then the final step was registering to vote. For some reason, that was the one that I held onto for the longest. There was something about it that I wanted to keep. I wanted to be able to tell people that I vote in Ohio for some reason..maybe because it seems like your vote matters there and it doesn't matter in Alabama.

All this to say, all is done. I'm a resident of Alabama and it feels weird. I feel like I've surrendered allegiance to Ohio. I always had some pride when people asked for my ID and I handed over my Ohio ID. Now, I just have this normal Alabama ID, the same thing everyone else has. Maybe its my desire to be to be unique. I know that regardless, I'll always be from Ohio...its where my roots are and my family, but nothing in my life now says its where I'm from. Its a part of letting go.