The importance of getting away when you can’t actually get away

As I mentioned in my first post, my husband and I are from upstate New York. We love where we are from and the few places we lived before we moved south, but the winters were too much. We always had the desire to move somewhere south.

Here we are and here we stay! We moved to North Carolina five years ago and it was love at first sight. We have big cities, small towns, mountains and a beautiful coast.

After living in our apartment for about three years, we decided to call this state our home and began house hunting. Our agent did a phenomenal job finding us our perfect first home. But I remember her telling us when we had our first meeting, make yourself a “must-have” list.

Yikes. A “must-have” list? Eight bedroom, six bathroom house with balcony, wrap-around front porch, infinity pool… Kidding! Our list consisted of our personal needs and wants in a first-home purchase. But we made sure to write down, ‘in close proximity to a greenway or park.’

Fortunately, the city of Greensboro’s Parks and Recreation Department has more than 8,000 acres of parks and open space, more than 100 miles of trails and greenways, 117 parks, four botanical gardens, three lakes and a partridge in a pear tree. And 60% of residents live within a half mile of a park.

This made our ‘in close proximity to a greenway or park’ item easy to check off! We found a beautiful neighborhood that had more than ten miles of sidewalks and its own one mile greenway! Also located down the road from us is Country Park, Guilford Courthouse National Military Park and Haw River State Park.

As much hiking and camping that we love to do, sometimes we can’t make it out to a new trail or area of the state because of conflicting work schedules, the house needs to be cleaned, etc. So it is a huge bonus when I can either walk down the road to the greenway or take a short drive to a nearby park.

Having these amenities close to your home will allow you to live a happier, healthier life. So if you’re reading this, I invite you to remind yourself to love where you live and find a healthy activity close to your home that keeps you feeling energized. When you do, it’ll help you get away when you can’y actually get away.