Ok – we moved here almost 2 years ago, and I have yet to post a single thing! Seriously, just getting here and everything that led up to that was so stressful that once we made it, I just wanted to enjoy it.
I looked back at some of my old posts (yes, from 3 years ago) and it’s so funny how my perspective of this island has changed after living here. Chad and I are so much more integrated into the community than we ever were in Dallas. It’s like a small town, and believe me, after growing up in a town with 1500 people, I know small towns. Sure, we have 50,000 people living on St. Croix, but you almost cannot go anywhere on this island without seeing someone you know – which I guess has benefits and drawbacks. You may not want to run into your loan officer after you just crawled out of bed and ran to the store to pick up milk, but on the other hand, if you really need help with something, chances are, you will know someone who can help you. Like when Chad broke his nose in a soccer game on a Sunday afternoon, we were on the phone with not one, but two plastic surgeons within thirty minutes. I wouldn’t have even begun to know how to contact one in Dallas.
Being involved in a small community has its other benefits. Reading my post “Running in the Virgin Islands,” I lamented the fact that there would not be any running programs here. Instead, I found a close-knit group to run and train with for the Chicago marathon last year, and I did better in that marathon than I did running with a large group in Dallas.
We’ve also become more involved here by giving of our time. I posted on “St. Croix Animal Rescue” and now I am on the Board for the shelter and Chad helped build their awesome new website. We even adopted the newest member of our family there because we fell in love with Gooch (and let’s be honest, he fell in love with us) the very first time that we volunteered at the shelter.
What else have we done? I am teaching yoga two days a week at Beeston Hill Fitness Center. (thanks for my incredible training, DYC!) Chad is playing soccer with Skills. (Soccer down here is not all like Dallas, or maybe I should say going to watch soccer here is not at all like Dallas.) I wish we could say that we spend every waking moment at the beach, but sadly, that is not the case.
I guess my point is that we have really invested a lot of time and energy into making St. Croix our home and it feels more like home to me than living in Dallas for 12 years ever did. Now if we could just actually build that home. More on that later . . .
