Dating the City - Meet Piedmont Park
Here I am, several years into being an adopted Georgia Peach, still loving and dating Atlanta. Today I'd like to introduce a major player in this ongoing love story.
Piedmont Park.
Piedmont Park helped me sort out my feelings about staying in Atlanta shortly after moving. Things were really rough, I didn't have a job, my car was in the shop awaiting expensive repair, most of my things were still in storage and I was spending my days chauffeuring my brother around so that I could use his car to go on interviews. His car was one of those huge cool old school rides. It was also a gas hog and I was constantly getting lost and refilling the tank. I was bleeding money.
The tipping point came when I went to interview at Turner Broadcasting. I WANTED that job! I'd spent days preparing for it, mapping the route, picking the outfit, studying about the role and the company. I was so ready! To make a long story short my interview took exactly 4 minutes. The ladies who interviewed me, informed me that I was the last candidate of the day, read me the job requirements and sent me on my way. I'd had an escort to take me to that exact location, but I was on my own getting back. I kept making wrong turns and getting increasingly more flustered as I spent almost 20 minutes trying to get back to where I came in. I finally got onto 285, but I was turned around and didn't realize that I couldn't get onto 400 from the part of 285 that I was on. My phone was dead, I couldn't call anyone and I had no GPS. I drove in circles feeling like the faces on the billboards were mocking me. I was almost out of gas, almost out of cash and I had to use the bathroom so badly that I slapped my leg to the beat of the song on the radio so the pain would keep me from peeing my pants! I was in full on ugly cry by the time I got home.
I didn't have any interviews the next day, so I decided to take a break and clear my head. Enter, Piedmont Park. I'd done a search of places to go and guess what? Piedmont Park was number one on the search. It was also free and I was broke so I packed some snacks and spent a wonderful day there. It turned out to be one of the best days I'd had in quite a while. The park was gorgeous, and as the hours passed I saw myself coming here to write, and with the friends I'd make and attending the Dogwood Festival that I'd just read about. Once again, I saw my life in Atlanta. I had to stay. I was ready to go home and get back on my grind. But first I had to find my brother's car, which I spent about 30 minutes looking for because I didn't remember where I'd parked, but that's beside the point.
Needless to say I did stay in Atlanta, but wasn't easy. I went through many forgettable temporary assignments and less than career making positions before I ended up doing what I do now.
I come to Piedmont Park almost weekly to shoot with my Photographer (Hi Quil!), to write, to think, to people watch and to dream. I've attended many Dogwood Festivals, since reading about them all those years ago. I've also met up with friends at Jazz Festivals and Ice Cream Festivals and Food Truck Festivals and you get the picture.
I almost had a date here once (yes, once!) before deciding against it. Piedmont Park is part of my love story with Atlanta and it would be disrespectful to bring some random there. Besides, what if he didn't act right, the Park and I would have to dump him. No, any date who gets to meet my Piedmont Park will have to be vetted first.
Now that you know how special Piedmont Park is, add it to your story if you haven't already.
