Lost In Space
I was heading into my seventh year in South Florida. The first four were probably the best four years of my life. The last couple I was lost in space and wasn’t sure what direction I wanted to move toward.
I got out of the car business and looked at some other opportunities, but there wasn’t anything I was passionate about. The car business made the most sense career-wise, but I had a bad taste in my mouth and didn’t want to move in that direction. I was floundering and I wasn’t going anywhere.
My brother Stephen was living in Atlanta Georgia and he had mentioned that I should come up there and check Atlanta out. Even though I wasn’t going anywhere in South Florida I didn’t want to move.
I had a girlfriend that I liked and I was in somewhat of a comfort zone. However, I decided to take a few days off and drive up to Atlanta and check it out.
Man, what a difference from South Florida. I went up there a couple of times early in 1993. I’m not sure what the deciding factor was, but I decided to make the move to Atlanta in June of 1993.
I-75 Northbound
I had movers pack all my belongings and I hit the road. This wasn’t one of those exclusive moves where my stuff was all they were moving up to Atlanta. This was a commune move where they had like three people moving up there. They told me that they wouldn’t have my stuff there for about a week.
It was about a 10-hour drive with all the construction they had on the roads. The only thing I remember about the drive was my cat. He would not shut up.
I knew when I first hit the road he would be crying, but it seemed like it never stopped. It was an aggravating drive with him meowing the bulk of the way. But we eventually made it safe and sound.
I ended up renting this cool apartment in Dunwoody. It had a garage and it was an end unit so I’d have more peace and quiet. You could enter the apartment via the front door and via the garage.
When you pulled into the garage after you parked there was a door that led to a small foyer. If you came in through the front door you’d land in the same foyer. Once you hit the foyer there were about 20 steps up to get to the main floor. It had a really cool layout. It boasted a huge kitchen, a little kitchenette, and a dining room area that you could fit a good-sized dining room table in.
The back of the apartment butted up to the woods so I had a great view and no neighbors to look at. I loved that place. Moving to Atlanta was a huge culture change, but that apartment made me feel good about the move. LOL
Atlanta reminded me a little bit of Flint in that the people were more like people from up north. But I was a South Florida kid who loved going to the beach and laying out in the sun all day.
I started to meet some friends but it was tougher than meeting people down in South Florida. Atlanta was more “Clicky” when it came to getting to know people.
Isreal Trip
We took a family trip to Israel in December of 1993. Both brothers and their kids, Mom and Dad, and me.
I was set in my ways of my Atheistic, Agnostic thinking. Even though I was Jewish, I didn’t identify as a jew so this was going to be a little weird for me. Nobody in my family knew how I felt about Judaism and religion.
But the history can’t be denied in Israel. I just didn’t believe any of it. I mean, come on…All this stuff in the Bible…how could it be factual? I wasn’t born in Missouri, but I had the “Show me” state of mind.
The place was amazing though. One of the adventures we checked out was Mt. Siani which is where God supposedly gave Moses the 10 Commandments (yeah, right LOL).
We were on a guided tour and we had about 20 people in our group. We were supposedly at “The Spot” where they said it all took place. You know…where God gave Moses the 10 Commandments.
They conducted this little ceremony and the guide wanted to give anyone in the group an opportunity to either get Bar Mitzvahed again or get it done for the first time. I was never Bar Mitzvahed and all of a sudden had this pier pressure from my family to do it. I bent, but I didn’t break. I wouldn’t do it. I’m sure I was judged for not going through with it.
Conclusion
Not getting Bar Mitzvahed on Mt. Siani when I had the chance put another nail in my religious and God coffin. In a way, I had this feeling of guilt that I should have gone through with the Bar Mitzvah. But then I was glad that I held my ground and stuck to my guns. That put me that much further away from God, religion, and my beliefs. However, little did I know that in 10 years everything would change as God showed up in my life in a huge way.
