One month left in Seattle.

One month until I move to New Orleans.

I’ve been here before.  Oh yes, I have been here before.

This blog is 3 years old.  This project is more than 7.

And this year is almost over.  If you’re wondering, no, I did not do everything I wanted to do while I was here.  I still have a month to pack some more stuff in, but in the end there will be things I missed.  At the same time, things happened here that I could never have planned, events that are probably more memorable than checking off the ‘Must-Sees’ on a Seattle tourism sheet.

That is, ultimately, the point of the project.  Over a ten year period, I could have visited every major city in America for a month or so and seen every tourist destination from Hawaii to Maine.  (I’m not sure how I would have funded this hypothetical excursion, but that’s neither here nor there.)  I could have done that, yes.  But then I would have missed out on the driving force of 10 Cities / 10 Years: The people.

For everyone wondering (and sometimes I feel like everyone’s wondering), yes, it is tough to leave people behind.  I don’t like shallow relationships, so those friendships I do make tend to be involved and invested.  Leaving them behind isn’t easy.

I know I’ll make new friendships.  I’ve done it in every city.  I’ll meet new women to have impossible crushes on and new morons to avoid like the plague.  But, mostly, I’ll meet new friends whose life stories and ambitions resonate with me for indefinable reasons.  They won’t necessarily be travelers.  They won’t necessarily be artists.  They might not be anything like me.  But they will be.

One more month to seal in that Seattle freshness.

I hope to make the most of it.

But right now?  Right now, I gots to get dressed for work.