You Can DECIDE To Change Your Life

Let me begin by recounting an experience that is probably going to leave your head shaking, especially if you are a military family. Military families understand how to move themselves, their family, and all their belongings across the country and across the world. Part of that process is identifying high dollar value items prior to the move so these items can receive special notation on your moving manifest.

This all seems very obvious and simple.

Until it isn’t.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I came late to military life. My wife and I were full-on civilians until my 45th year on this planet. Unless my wife works until I’m 91, the civilian portion of my life will always be the majority and dominant part of my life. The problem I had with identifying high dollar items prior to the move is that many of these items are simply possessions of mine that have been with me my whole life. These are possessions that hold far more emotional than monetary value, and because of this, I forget to note them on moving manifests.

I’m not sure why I suddenly thought of the coin collection in our new home in Germany in the middle of the unpacking mess across three levels. But I did. And then I started to search for the coin collection. But nowhere was it to be found.

I had started the collection as a young child at the urging of my father, eventually combining it with that of my father’s much larger collection into an even larger and more highly valued set.

I did not give up quickly.

I searched every box and every pile that had been unpacked in every room. As veterans of many moves know, there is no rhyme or reason to which items are combined in a moving box, and the result is kitchen knives on the floor of your bedroom and underwear and socks on your kitchen counter. Trans-Atlantic moves are slightly worse because of the crating process that does not require the finesse of a trans-continental move in boxes alone.

But in the end, that coin collection was not with us in Germany.

Our local bank alerted us to these limited 5 and 10 euro coins.

Apparently, the packers who moved our family from North Carolina (Fort Bragg) to Germany walked away with the coin collection. It never made it on to the manifest. So, that answers a question some readers may have right now.

No, we could not file a claim for the value of the coin collection. I myself did not know the full value of the collection, nor was it recorded with the moving company.

First, I was mad. I wanted to contact the police department in North Carolina to report stolen property.

Then, I was sad.

The coin collection had monetary value, no doubt. But that a significant portion had been gifted by my father who worked for decades building his collection saddened me to know it was now gone. Because my father passed away seven years previously, there was no rebuilding this portion of the collection. That’s what hurt most. The movers who stole this collection most likely used the coins at face value, reaping very little financial benefit for their crime. They took something given by my deceased father for what they probably turned into nothing more than a lunch at Subway.

A few weeks went by, and it continued to eat at me. I alternated between anger and sadness.

Then the lightbulb went off.

The old coin collection was not coming back—I knew that. But what about a new collection?

Willy Sutton robbing coins from the bank.

My 11-year-old son, Hunter, devours information and history, in particular. As the first-born child of three, he also enjoys his parents’ undivided attention when it is provided. What if I were to start the collection from scratch with my son?

It’s corny to say, but like the Whos in Whoville, that’s when I understood what inspired such anger and sadness within myself. It was not the financial loss driving those emotions. They had attacked a memory of my father.

When you lose a parent you desperately seek to hold on to them so you don’t wake up one morning and realize you hadn’t thought of them in a week or, God forbid, a month. To help you hold on to them and think about them every day, you tend to have a few very important things that will help you remember them.

This coin collection was one of those things for me to always remember my father.

But then I understood the best thing that came from my coin collecting hobby with my father. It was not just the father-son memories he created. It was a father-son tradition he taught me that I could now share with my son. And now my son and I are creating memories.

In these few short months since we began the new collection there are many memories I will carry forward.

Sending Hunter into the bank with a briefcase to exchange quarter rolls (the briefcase was another casualty of the move and is no longer suitable for professional environments).

Coming out of the bank with so many rolls of coins, my son looks like a bank robber.

Still working on the girls to join us.

Hunter coming across a Lincoln cent that had been disfigured and stating he will retain it because the disfigurement is an accurate anatomical representation of President Lincoln’s injury suffered during his assassination.

Hunter coming across a 1969 quarter, which to collectors, is nothing special. Hunter excitedly says he is keeping it because, “1969—the year of the moon landing. I’m keeping it!” What 11 year old in 2020 says that?

He also refuses to part with 1965 quarters, which are worth no more than 25 cents. It was a year in which the United States Government minted more 1.8 billion quarters, far more than an average year. He views them as “so old I have to keep them.” Then I remind him they are only four years older than his dad, and how would he feel if someone said a 2005 quarter was “so old I have to keep them?” He just looks at me while slyly pushing the 1967 quarters to the side.

These, and many more stories, are the memories I will keep long after he has grown and long after the coin collection has been transferred into his hands.

We don’t have to let the circumstances of our lives define us and our happiness. We can define ourselves and our happiness through our actions to change those circumstances. A wise friend of mine, Charles Piso, recently said, “I think it is pretty cool that you can just decide to change your life. Make today the day.”

Indeed.

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Scot Shumski

Scot Shumski

Scot hails from the former Republic of Vermont where his family goes back more than seven generations. Currently, he lives in the Bavarian region of Germany with his wife of more than 15 years and their three children. Previous stops on the thrill seeking roller coaster ride of life include Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Fort Lewis, Washington; and Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Scot has visited all fifty United States and twenty countries. He is currently working on a set of universally accepted parameters with his son, Hunter, to help travelers determine if they can count a destination as having been visited. Before moving back to the United States, Scot plans on visiting all 27 European Union member nations. Before leaving this world he hopes to visit every nation on Earth. You can find him on both Twitter and Instagram @ScotShumski or on his website where he documents his travels, marathons, national park visits, and thoughts on life. Paradise for Scot has beaches where you can relax, national parks where you can camp, mountains to climb, marathons to run, foreign languages to learn, new foods to eat, and new and interesting people to meet!

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