It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been five-years, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve finally made my return to the Mega-Plex.<\/p>\n
I was born in Dallas, raised in Dallas and graduated in Mesquite.<\/p>\n
During college I moved to central Texas and Belton where I swore it would be a long time before I would ever consider returning to the Big-D.<\/p>\n
But paths, passions and feelings can change quickly \u00e2\u20ac\u201c sometimes overnight.<\/p>\n
And now that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve moved back, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve moved in with my parents for a few weeks until final contracts are signed on my house.<\/p>\n
A lot has changed in five years.<\/p>\n
As I moved back into my old bedroom, which was painted lavender several years ago, I reflected on yester-year.<\/p>\n
My first memory of our house in Mesquite was slightly traumatic.<\/p>\n
We moved from 8751 Milverton in Dallas to Mesquite at the end of my freshman year.<\/p>\n
Shortly after we moved I decided it was time to put my waterbed back together and began the process of filling the large mattress.<\/p>\n
But watching a waterbed fill with water is about as exciting as watching an Austin College or McMurry University football game.<\/p>\n
So I left my room and went outside to play football with my sisters.<\/p>\n
Naturally football took precedence and it was several hours before I returned inside.<\/p>\n
In the span of several hours, the hose filling my waterbed had popped lose from its connection and filled the entire end of the house with 1\/2-an-inch of water.<\/p>\n
Needless to say, my mom wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t too happy \u00e2\u20ac\u201c until she found out she would be able to re-carpet the entire house for a small insurance deductible.<\/p>\n
Now, more than 10 years later, my mom is ready to re-carpet the house, but unfortunately the waterbed is long gone.<\/p>\n
As I look back and reflect, I remember the last time I lived at home with my family.<\/p>\n
August 2000.<\/p>\n
At the time I was 21 and ready to move to University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.<\/p>\n
My sisters Amy and Kara were in the room next door.<\/p>\n
I remember randomly running into their room while they tried to sleep and jumping on top of both of them. I also had a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bad habit\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of pulling off their covers while they tried to sleep.<\/p>\n
But that last night I lived at home I remember I couldn’t sleep.<\/p>\n
I was so anxious to head to college.<\/p>\n
Then in 2003 when I finally finished school, I was so independent I wasn’t going to move back home. I wasn’t about to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153bum off my parents\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, I was going to make it on my own.<\/p>\n
But last night I started thinking about all the “what-ifs.”<\/p>\n
What if I had moved back home when I graduated?<\/p>\n
I would have been able to spend more time with my family, including my sister Amy who left us at the age of 24 in March.<\/p>\n
I might have found a job working in radio in Dallas.<\/p>\n
I might have found a job at a daily paper – much sooner than I did.<\/p>\n
I’d probably have less debt.<\/p>\n
I wouldn’t have my dogs, Payton and Precious.<\/p>\n
I wouldn’t have gotten to know David Tuma at all.<\/p>\n
I wouldn’t have gotten to know Berneta Peeples at all.<\/p>\n
I probably wouldn’t be best of friends with Allman — my former landlord and fellow West Wing nut and wrestling fanatic.<\/p>\n
I probably wouldn’t be involved with Christian Wrestling Federation.<\/p>\n
I probably would have never joined the Lions Club \u00e2\u20ac\u201c at least not until I had many more gray hairs.<\/p>\n
I probably would have never learned all I did about running a weekly newspaper.<\/p>\n
I would have been able to see more of Amy while she was sick and in the hospital.<\/p>\n
And the list goes on and on…<\/p>\n
Some regrets, some blessings, but “what-ifs” never really get you anywhere. <\/p>\n
So I’m going to stop and look to what’s ahead instead. <\/p>\n
I may have an imperfect past – but I have a spotless future.<\/p>\n
So let’s see where I go from here.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Phil. 3:13b-15<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been five-years, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve finally made my return to the Mega-Plex. I was born in Dallas, raised in Dallas and graduated in Mesquite. During college I moved to central Texas and Belton where I swore it would be a long time before I would ever consider returning to the Big-D. But paths, passions and … Continue reading This week’s column: Returning home<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2090],"tags":[3118,3116,2404,3117,3115,466],"class_list":["post-517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns-reflections","tag-dfw","tag-mega-plex","tag-mesquite","tag-returning","tag-returning-home","tag-waxahachie"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pEnSo-8l","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}