September 10

Describe a distinct moment when your life took a turn.

Tough topic.  Gee whiz.  Here we go. 

I moved from Minnesota to Colorado in 2005.  I had never lived away from my family before (except that time I went to college for a week).  We were moving to Boulder and while I had been to Colorado once, I had never been to Boulder before. 

So at 22, I moved 1,000 miles away from the only home I’d known with a boyfriend (Bobaloo) whom I had never lived with before to a city I had never been to.

The day before the move, I remember stacking boxes in my parents’ garage in preparation for the U-Haul.  And while I was excited and ready for my next chapter, I was a little nervous too.

My Pops came out to the garage to check how things were coming along and said something like,

“Well Jillie, I’m jealous that you’re going to make it out there before I do.”

And in that moment, there was something about the look in his eyes and the tone of his voice that was so encouraging.  He knew and trusted that I was going to be okay.

There was a clear finality to that sentence; we both knew I wasn’t coming back.

Pops & I at Red Rocks for Neil Young & Crazy Horse - August 2012.