I Didn't Plan to Live In a Hotel For Two Weeks

This experience has reminded me that even unwanted changes have some benefits

Photo by Pranav Kumar Jain on Unsplash

I didn’t plan to write this from a hotel room. My husband and I (and our cat Taffy) have been here for almost a week, after moving out of the horrible hotel we were in last week. The friend we expected to stay with tested positive for COVID the day we were supposed to move in.

We were on the way to her house when she called with that news. She said she had found us a cheap hotel for the week. It seemed okay at first and we were too tired to investigate other options. We parked the U-Haul truck full of furniture and other possessions to be unloaded into a storage unit the next morning out front, then brought everything else inside.

My friend's COVID led to pneumonia, so a longer hotel stay became necessary. I couldn’t endure another week there. After hours of searching online I found a reasonably priced better option. We’re here until Monday, when we should finally be able to move in to her house.

All of this has reminded me yet again that life doesn’t always go as planned. Things happen that we can’t anticipate or control.

We had to move out of our apartment when the rent increased another $200 a month, after going up $200 a month last year. Nothing else in the area was affordable. Fortunately my friend and her husband invited us to move in with them temporarily.

Our current circumstances aren’t entirely bad. When I look hard enough, I can see some positive aspects. For example:

• My friend tested positive before we arrived, so we didn’t have close contact with her. We probably would have COVID too if she had tested positive after we moved in.

• My husband and I get two extra weeks of time alone to explore the area, adjust to life in a new city, and discuss ways to generate more income so we can get our own place as soon as possible.

• My friend can rest and recover and her husband can care for her without the added stress of us being there.

• I can still write, since the hotel has internet access.

There is also one totally unexpected benefit of moving here that makes me very happy. As some of you know, I’m a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. He is performing here in February, and I got two tickets for $55. Normally a single seat costs much more than that! Everything we have gone through is worth it to attend a Bruce concert.

So if your life isn't going the way you expected or want it to, see if you can find some good things in the midst of the bad. Try to make the best of circumstances you can't change. Figure out what you can change that would make life better and focus on that. Remember this:

We’re in a time of new suns. We have no idea what we could be, but everything that we have been is falling apart. So it’s time to change.

- adrienne maree brown