Moving On

I guess it is true that life presents us with moments from which we just have to move on. As someone who obsesses over tradition and hates change, this is somewhat of a foreign topic for me and I know that sometimes I am not easy-going enough as a result. Even still, we must move on.

We must move on from the family staple that may have been alive for decades. We may have to move on from the house in which we spent a good deal of our childhoods without a worry in the world. And we might have to move on from the friends or even family members we no longer see, those who don't grace us with their presence anymore for reasons unknown or perhaps for painful reasons that are all too clear. Even still, we move on.

Gaga's beach: a staple of my childhood and a place where both kids and adults could come to get away from the world. Our own slice of heaven, named after the grandmother who loved it so much, tucked away in Morehead City, and seemingly reserved for no one else's bare feet than hers and her family's. There's no way of knowing how many hours were spent on this sand, relaxing and laughing, simultaneously. I become sentimental every time I walk out on its dock and so, I allow myself to take it all in.

Moving on of course comes in several different forms. It can mean simply cutting something out of your memory, freeing space for new traditions and adventures. But it can also mean allowing a moment to remain in your mind, ever-present but not necessarily at the forefront and certainly not too overpowering. And this does allow it to remain a part of who you are, because don't our past experiences culminate to define our present selves? Perhaps and today I will hone this message, allowing myself to linger in Morehead City at one of my family's staples and a place we seemingly had all to ourselves, though we knew of course this wasn't true.

So as I sit here and bask in the greatness of this place, of this childhood memory of mine, of times past and perhaps times to come, I realize that Gaga's beach will always be a part of who I am and where I've been. It will always remain part of our family, whether we see it as we once did or not. Though we may have to move on in life, nothing can ever take away the memories and the moments that touched our hearts, kept our wishful gazes, and made our childhoods so full of love and wonder.