Sentimental value, like love, should be reserved for people not things.

The title of this blog is actually an original quote that I recently posted on Facebook.  It received several likes, which leads to believe that it's not to be taken lightly. This quote came to me during the time Rick and I have spent away from home. I miss home so much that it's thrown off many of the activities that I regularly enjoy, cooking a nice dinner, having a glass of wine (or two) relaxing on the couch, even exercising. I've tried reminding myself that home is what you make it and being anywhere as long as it's with Rick should feel like home. So it's possible that I created this quote as a way to convince myself of its validity. It was this quote that I said over and over again to myself as I walked through the darkened lobby of my company's Chicago Loop office last night to gather my things. I've accepted a position with another group - still within my same company - that will take me out to our west suburban office. I repeated this mantra to keep from getting "sentimental" about my departure.

Of course I'll miss the hustle and bustle of the city, but after close to 6 years down here I don't approach this change with complete disdain. I'll miss popping across the street for a happy hour cocktail, especially when it leads to an entire night of festivities hitting one hot night spot after another. I'll miss the fast-paced, no nonsense way in which the working class operates downtown. Knowing we're all here to achieve the same main goals - work, lunch, home - creates a kind of unity that is difficult to find among such diversity. Seeing the same people at 9 that you do at 5, even though you may live worlds apart is grounding. In the suburbs you see the same people because you work with them. You know where they're going, you know who they work for, and eventually you start avoiding them because if you have to grin through one more bout of small talk you might just claw your eyes out. Those things almost don't exist downtown. And here I go getting sentimental again.

Let me end this by saying that I've given myself permission to feel sentimental today. Not because I'll miss the silent strangers on the street, the gleaming walls of the office lobby, or even the happy hour options, but because I'll miss my people.  The people who have become like family to me because we argue, we joke, and even though we rarely hang out outside of the office when we do it's like we do it all the time. So it's the people, not the things that I'm getting choked up about. They may not know it because I certainly won't show it, but I'm smiling to hold back whatever emotions might actually show if I let them. Because even in a city as small town as Chicago, leaving the center is like moving to another planet.

All-in-all I believe the quote "sentimental value, like love, should be reserved for people not things" is meant to help me disconnect from things and recognize what is really driving the sentiment: memories, people, experiences, so that I can hold on to what's important and let go of what is not.