Moving day tomorrow!

I've spent the past several evenings packing up my apartment in anticipation of my move tomorrow. The truck is reserved, the cupboards are cleaned out, my books are in boxes; the only things left to be packed are my TV (my sole source of entertainment, since my internet was shut down on Sunday), my clothes, and my toiletries.
While three years might not sound like a long time to some people, it's the longest that I've spent in one place since I moved to Chicago. Up until then, I'd moved, on average, once every nine months for five years. It's hard to feel like you have any stability when you're hopping from one place to another like that. It really wasn't until I'd been living in my current place, soon to be my old place, that I started to feel like Chicago was actually home.
There are good memories and bad ones associated with it, like there would be with any place you call home for a few years. In the time that I lived there, my father and stepmother both passed away, as did my dog. I lost my job a couple of years ago and was panic stricken about it, and cleaned compulsively to try to distract myself from how scared I was that I wasn't going to make it.
It's also where I was when I found out that I got my current job. I had my first kiss with the love of my life sitting on my porch. I've cooked countless meals in the kitchen, napped on the couch in the living room and been woken by the bells ringing the hours in the church across the street. I can't say that the past few years have been the happiest of my life, but they've definitely been some of the most formative.
And you know what's weird? I'm going to really miss the fence in the back yard. It's such a great place to take outfit photos.

But I am really excited for a fresh start in a new place. I'm going to be living with my boyfriend, which is an exciting change. We'll still have a roommate, at least for now, but that's not such a bad thing. I've made a lot of changes in my life recently, and I think having a new apartment might help solidify some of them for me. 

We'll see how the move goes tomorrow, and how well I like the place once I've settled in. It's hard to know how a place is going to feel until you get everything in. Then you realize that your clothes don't fit in the closet, but the bathroom is so perfect, and you might need to get some new furniture for the living room. For now, I'm feeling optimistic.