The Rhythm We Came Here For

There are certain moments in every move that make a new place feel a little more permanent.

The boxes disappearing helps. Starting new jobs helps. Finding the grocery store, the hockey rink, doctors, piano teachers, and figuring out how long it actually takes six people to get out the door in the morning all help.

But the first day of school feels different.

This week, all four kids officially became Alaska students.

Dax and Zoe joined the Bear Valley Elementary community, while Mia and Ana became Goldenview Middle School Suns.

After spending the summer wondering what their new schools would be like, there was a lot of excitement walking through those doors. One of the biggest gifts of already having a few weeks in Alaska was that they weren’t walking in completely alone. Between hockey and church, each of the kids already had familiar faces waiting for them in their classrooms and hallways.

That made this first day at a new school feel a little different from some of the others we’ve experienced.

And after seeing Goldenview, we’re not entirely sure how Mia and Ana are expected to concentrate.

The school looks out over the water and mountains, with the kind of Alaska views that still make us stop and stare. Sam is fairly certain she’d spend significantly more time looking out the windows than paying attention if that had been her middle school.

Thankfully, the girls seem more focused on what’s happening inside.

Ana is particularly excited about a class that will have her working in the school café. It’s hands-on, different, and exactly the kind of class she can throw herself into.

Mia gets to continue a journey that has followed her across moves and schools: band. There is something comforting about seeing her pick up an instrument in yet another new place and knowing that music gets to remain one of the constants. She’s also excited about her applied technology course and getting to explore something completely new.

At Bear Valley, Dax and Zoe are settling into elementary school life and already looking forward to something that hasn’t even arrived yet.

Snow.

They learned that when winter arrives, sledding becomes part of recess.

There may never have been two kids more motivated for the temperature to drop.

So far, all four kids love their schools. They’re making connections, learning new routines, and beginning to build lives here that are actually theirs, not just extensions of Mom and Dad’s assignment.

And they weren’t the only ones starting something new this week.

Zed officially started his new job with the 611th Air Operations Center.

That means all six of us now have somewhere we’re supposed to be in the morning.

For months, our lives have revolved around moving. Packing. Driving. Unpacking. Traveling. Starting jobs. Camps. Hockey. Appointments. Getting kids home. Getting everyone registered for everything.

Now the alarm clocks are set, backpacks are by the door, work calendars are filling up, instruments need practicing, hockey bags need packing, and six people need to get out of the house in six different directions.

We’re finding our rhythm.

It probably won’t look exactly like the rhythm we had before. That’s one of the strange things about moving. You spend years building routines until they become almost effortless, then pack everything into boxes and start all over again.

But each morning gets a little smoother.

Each drive becomes more familiar.

Each new face becomes someone we know.

And somewhere between the school drop-offs, workdays, hockey practices, piano lessons, dinners, homework, and backpacks scattered across the floor, Alaska is slowly becoming less like the place we moved to.

It’s becoming home.