I talked a bit about my transition to Memphis, but here’s a thought that’s been going through my mind lately.
I’m acutely aware that my brain requires a certain amount of novelty to function, and that rearranging my work life so that I could move came at just the right time when I was about to flip out over being confined to Huntsville. But making this move has helped remind me just how much fun it novelty is to me.
I like getting lost and finding my way around streets I don’t know. I’ve been doing that a lot.
To some extent I like having to make new friends. I don’t mean that I tire of my old friends, exactly, or that I like feeling alone. But there’s something stimulating about the blank social slate.
I like being new places and having new opportunities to explore. I need to explore more of these coffee shops and not just stick to Otherlands and High Point. I definitely need to go through this list of Memphis BBQ joints!
Anyway, my point about novelty is that even though I’m just soaking it up, I’m acutely aware than in 3 or 6 months, everything novel about Memphis won’t seem novel any more. And although Memphis is the kind of place I could settle for good, much more than Huntsville, I also know that it won’t always be this new and exciting. So I can move around a lot, or I can learn new ways to create novelty in familiar settings. (For the record, grad school may move me away from Memphis in 2009 anyway.)
I’m not sure how “settled” I’ll be in the future, but I do know that I can’t live without some sort of novelty.