By the time you are reading this, your guess as to where I am now is as good as mine. But I can tell you this much: I am in love, I am in Alabama, and I may be just a little bit crazy.

It takes one enormous leap of faith to quit your job in the middle of this country’s not-so-great recession and move to where your heart is, but that is exactly what I have done. In the 10 months since I left the Catholic Herald, I started a new job (assistant editor at Wisconsin Trails magazine), acquired a fiancé (thank you, Catholic Herald, I really owe you for that one), lost my father to lung cancer, got accepted to Spring Hill College’s Master of Theological Studies program (go Jesuits!) and quit my job to move to Alabama to become a Southern Belle which, unfortunately, does not pay, or qualify as an occupation in this time of hopefully very temporary unemployment.

So, it’s hard to say where I am now, except that I am in the most tumultuous time of my life thus far.

But I can tell you where I am going. On June 12, 2010, I will be a wife. As each day passes, Seth and I are putting down the roots of our life together in Alabama. Within a year’s time, I will register for my first class at Spring Hill and begin my journey toward receiving my master’s degree in pastoral ministry.

I’ll still be writing – hopefully stories, and not Waffle House orders. And, perhaps, best of all? Come March, I will not be complaining about shoveling 100 inches of snow.

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