Sixty Days of Gratitude: Rapid City, South Dakota

Photo credit: Visit Rapid City

Today starts the 60 day clock for the divorce proceedings. It's hard to describe how challenging it was to write that last sentence.

I've stopped traveling around for a bit and got a short-term lease on an apartment; it is surprisingly difficult to get a divorce without a physical address. I don't want to write about the logistics, legalities, and emotions that come along with this process. I don't want to reflect on sixty good things about having been married for the last - almost - dozen years. I don't want to still have moments where I am heartbroken. I never wanted to get divorced at all. Just goes to show that wants and needs are not the same thing.

So, for my own catharsis, I am giving myself a 60-day writing challenge. Something everyday to force it out of my brain and into the world. It's a bit like throwing up poison. Except, I want to be my own cure, too, and hope to frame every post around something from the last 12 years I'm grateful for happening.

This blog is themed around passion, parks, adventures, and the great big world of living passionately. I am passionate about my recovery and the ways I can work through my past to live more fully in the present. In my imagination, my writing is compelling and inspiring. In reality, I can probably name the three people who read my last post. Obscurity encourages brutal honesty. 

Today, I am grateful for Rapid City. I was afraid to stop somewhere or choose someplace to live just to get a separation from my spouse - whom I have not seen in 2.5 years - since that felt like he was getting to control some part of my life again. Coming to South Dakota turned out to be on my own terms. I am pursuing passions here I have neglected on the road (like reading fiction voraciously) and getting to explore a region in detail. 

Rapid City is within a days drive of six national park units, a national forest, multiple state parks, four different states, and multiple biomes. I can nerd, camp, hike, and experience the world and then come home to a roof over my head and a kitchen that doesn't have to be sheltered from the wind. With about 75,000 residents, it has all the things necessary for practical living, a decent number of restaurants, and a bunch of small-town-like bonuses. 

Before moving here, I had never even been to South Dakota. It's been barely a month and I'm already finding my way around without a GPS and getting accustomed to the local culture. Three years ago, I'm not sure I had it in me to just decide something and then relocate without panic. If I had never been married, I would likely have never moved to Loudoun. If I hadn't moved to Loudoun, I would not have had the same level of coaching opportunities, which led to the career-switching journey that drew me to Pennsylvania, where I eventually encountered a crisis that allowed me to consider this cross-country journey and nomadic lifestyle. I can say with some level of confidence I would still have not been to South Dakota if I had never been married.

I don't know yet if I'll stay here in Rapid City when this whole process is over. Right now, I am literally just camping inside the apartment with my sleeping bag on the floor and using my travel gear as furniture (storage bin side table, anyone?). Whether it is the next 60 days or 60 years, just for today, I am grateful to call Rapid City home. 

To learn at least 59 more things for which I am grateful, keep coming back.