High/Low.

In the spring of 2000, I decided to move from Charleston, South Carolina to San Francisco, California.  I'd graduated college early and felt overwhelmingly ready to move somewhere bigger and start a new chapter in my life.  Luckily, I had Colin with me for support because as "overwhelmingly ready" as I thought I was, it only took about a month to realize it was not the place for me.

Don't get me wrong, SF is wonderful.  The food.  The perfect blend of salt and air that makes sourdough better there than any other place in the world.  Ghirardelli chocolate.  Entire restaurants that serve only soup.  It's a quick trip to Muir Woods or Napa Valley.  There's walks in the Haight.  People-watching in the Castro.  Playing tourist at the Wharf.

It really is quite magical.

But... there was also the everpresent fog.  Sometimes it didn't part for a week.  Often it was accompanied by a dreadful mist that, at first, didn't seem so bad, but by the time you've been misted on for three blocks it really starts to soak in.  And then there's the cold!  Ohmygoodness.  It's California!  And I've never been so cold for so long.  I just never seemed to fully warm up, ever.  Well, that was until September and October rolled around; then it got ridiculously hot and we had no AC.  The weather shift resulted in an hour drive south to find the nearest Target and largest fan ever made. 

Other things that made it difficult?  I'd never been so far away from my family.  I didn't have a job.  I was trying to build up my clinical experience so I could apply to Doctoral programs in Clinical Psych AND I was studying for the GRE General and Subject Tests.  Oh, and did I mention it was expensive?  And cold?

But even though I was miserable and wanted to bolt, there was something Colin started which really seemed to help.  Every day we played High/Low.

High/Low was a game we discovered after watching The Story of Us when we met in 1999.  It's pretty self-explanatory; you just name the absolute best and worst part of your day.  It was a great way to connect.  To check-in.  To learn more about what each of us was experiencing during the day when we were apart.  And as silly as it sounds, it gave me something to look forward to.

At the end of one year, we packed up and moved back across the country so that I could work on my M.A.  I was ecstatic to be in the Florida sunshine where fog didn't exist, rain fell hard and soaked you to the bone in under 5 seconds, and a cold day meant a long-sleeved t-shirt under the short-sleeved one. 

And somewhere along the line, Colin and I forgot about High/Low.



When I picked Teague up from his very first, full day of first grade on Monday, every one of my inquiries was met with, "I don't know," or "I don't remember."  So I told him we were going to play High/Low.  I don't even know why I thought about it.  It just popped right out of my mouth.  But luckily, it immediately opened a door into a day in the life of my first grader.

Teague's High? A brand new playground and Owen (of course!)
Teague's Low? Ms. Mahoney actually expected them to sit at their desks!

My high?  Hearing that Crews jumped out of the car at carpool that morning and never looked back. (So brave!)
My low?  My 3-year-old jumped out of the car at carpool and never looked back!  (He's growing up too fast!)

Life is quite a journey.  So many ups and downs.  It is said that without the lows we can't truly enjoy the highs.  But wouldn't it be nice if we could?

Sometimes it's the simplest question.  The smallest, but perfectly-phrased request that gets us some answers and reminds us to be excited about our day-to-day experiences.  I think I'll play High/Low with Teague every afternoon in carpool.  And this time around, I won't forget how important the little things can be.