Cheers to Wilmington
So this is it. After nearly eight years together, I raise my drinking glass up, toasting within your borders one last time. I have cheers’d within your city limits[1] too many times to count. While here, I have earned a Bachelors degree, was a beach lifeguard for three summers, briefly worked at a restaurant, interned at a FANTASTIC company[2], turned that internship into a full-time job/career path, lived at the beach, worked with dogs at my office, biked to work, became a beer connoisseur, presented as an Alumni at CSB Business Week three times, and learned the convenience of a small airport.
I could go on[3], but this cheers is not for me, but for you.
To be exact-ish, you have been my home for seven years and eight months. Instead of celebrating my eighth year with you, I will be moving to California; San Diego to be specific. Aside from the obvious differences[4], it is very similar to you; it has a laid-back temperament, has GREAT scenery and it is a bustling city that is often overshadowed by a big brother ~120 miles away[5]. The biggest difference is how big it is. Seriously, it will not be nearly as small to grasp; but I plan on taking it one step at a time, just like my time with you.
You were the perfect place to “grow-up” in. I came to you to attend UNCW. I moved off-campus after one semester to 219 Dixie Ave. It was extremely tight quarters but my friends and I made it work. After finishing my first year at college, I worked my first summer at Carolina Beach as a lifeguard. While there, I learned how dangerous the ocean can be and that learning how to swim should be required in elementary or middle school. Sophomore year arrived and my roommates and I got into the habits of shopping as a group at Harris Teeter, working out/swimming together, doing planned dinners and studying together. We all improved in our GPA’s that semester; which was what you should be doing while in college.
As the fall semester was coming to a close, so was the lease to our humble abode. One day all three of us were in economics, sitting like ducks in a row, trying to figure out where the fuck to live. While our house was comfy, it was way too small. When we were getting up to leave, a guy who was sitting behind us stopped us. He says that he saw we were looking for a house and that he, and his roommates, needed people to sublet to. We met him and his roommates there an hour later and the deal was made for us to take over their house that December. This ended up being what I would call home for 3+ years.
I only moved to the other side of campus, but everything seemed different. The walking distance from my house to the main buildings went from 15+ to 3½ minutes. Our friends would use the yard as a place to park if they were late instead of parking on-campus. My roommates and I all had a car so we started branching out more instead of cooking dinners at the house[6]. I worked my second summer on Carolina Beach and that August I turned 21. I gradually started exploring bars but as I was the first of my friend group to turn 21, but I primarily stuck to the house-party scene. After my junior year of college came and went, I lived in Marseille, France for a month. While Marseille and other cities I visited were AWESOME, I couldn’t see myself leaving you anytime soon.
Once back in US, I finished the summer at Carolina Beach and either rode an ATV or monitored the beach goers outside of Atlantic Towers, Hamlet or Harper ave five days a week. The school year arrived and so did new roommates as my previous ones moved out. The majority of my friends had turned the magical age of 21 by then and we began to find our favorite watering holes; and you have no shortage of them[7]. As my senior year started I decided to earn a double concentration, which would cause me to be in college for an extra semester. The year passed and I had to say goodbye to a lot of my friends who graduated. Some were going to Raleigh, others to Charlotte, a few to the DC area and an even smaller amount out west.
That summer, instead of working on the beach, I landed an internship with OpinionLab. Throughout college, I had dreaded the day I would be living the “corporate life” but OpinionLab changed that. My coworkers were very down-to-earth and happy to help with any questions I had. The office was located in Lumina Station, which is halfway between where I lived and the beach. My internship and then full-time position was a deadline based position, so as long as I was productive by making the deadlines set, I could work outside:
After my first year working full-time at OpinionLab and still living close to the UNCW campus I was presented with two choices: either move to Chicago and work in OpinionLab’s main office, or move to Wrightsville Beach and live with my best friend while keeping my current position.
This was the first time I strongly considered leaving you, but I opted to stay. I lived on the top floor at 5 Oceanic St for the next two years. It is located in the main section of Wrightsville Beach, right next to all of the shops and beach bars. Chances are, if you visited Wrightsville Beach in those two years, you probably saw me as it was hard to get me off the ‘island’. I became the epitome of a beach dweller: I spent 9-5 mon-fri at work and the rest of my time was spent between lounging on the beach, people watching from my porch, eating dinner outside, becoming a regular at every beach restaurant/bar and only leaving the beach area if it was absolutely necessary. I fell into a comfortable routine, working for OpinionLab and being a beach bum, but I started to become restless. I had seen friends move away to find career success in bigger cities and others move-in/get engaged to their significant other. I began to feel like I was just spinning my wheels in the sand.
Halloween in 2014, everything changed. I traveled off Wrightsville because I was tired of the Beach Bars and went to a friend’s house before going downtown for the night. He had invited his sister and her friends to go with us. Once downtown, we went to the rooftop bar at Reel Café and I began to hit it off with one of his sister’s friends. We got to talking and after a few drinks we realized two things: we lived *literally* one block away from each other and there was an instant connection. We bar-hopped the rest of the night, at the end of which we exchanged numbers. We had our first date the next day - coffee and a walk on the beach. Later that week we began making dinner, watching movies and wandering around the beach bars together. It was her senior year and We spent a lot of time together during her last semester. After she graduated, she accepted an internship in Asheville, NC. The summer came and went and one night while on the phone, I asked her what her plans were after the internship ended. She said she wanted to go to grad-school in California. I had been to CA a few times by that point and loved it out there, so I followed up by asking, “mind if I join you?” She couldn’t have been happier and said “of course!”
That is how quick the decision process was for me. Although I loved living in Wilmington, moving in with some I was/am in love with was a no-braniner. I have been in Wilmington for nearly eight years and done nearly everything there was to do. Whenever I was not in Wilmington during those years, I would always hear it calling me, like the Ring to Frodo. I know I will miss you, but leaving you is what needs to happen. It’s not you, it’s me; so here’s to you – clink.
[1] for the purposes of this piece I count Wilmington’s city limits to extend to just past Atlantic Towers in Carolina Beach and to also include Wrightsville Beach.
[2] www.OpinionLab.com
[3] I helped start a chapter of a Fraternity (ATΩ – KI), won four intramural championships, volunteered at multiple beer festivals annually, volunteered at music festivals annually, and more
[4] TOPOGRAPHY
[5] Raleigh, NC and Los Angles, CA
[6] flaming amys bowl, yo sake, tower 7, fox and the hound, sweet and savory, jerry allens, Carolina ale house, flaming amys burrito, bdobo, cookout, chops deli, copper penny, keg and egg, and others.
[7] cape fear beer and wine, lighthouse beer and wine, front street brewery, the whiskey, the husk, blue post, reel café, jerry allens, red dawgs, 22 North, banks channel, lagerheads, the triangle lounge, the goat and compass, fly trap, palate, and others.
