Since my post "Maybe..." I've had a discussion or two about places we want to live with people, and I've had a few questions concerning why I consider Oregon home, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to explain.
I have been a gypsy, for the most part, my entire adult life. Even if you factor in the four years in Oxford, Ohio, for undergrad the most time I've ever spent in one location is four years. That's right, since the age of 18 (that's 18 years if you do the math) I've lived in Ohio (4 years), Alabama (2 years), Tennessee (5 years - but 2 years in Pulaski and 3 years in Murfreesboro), Oregon (4 years), and now Michigan (3/4 of the way through year 3) and I've held 5 jobs not counting undergrad and grad school. I truly am a product of where I grew up. T gives me shit on a regular basis about the blue-collar-work-ethic that prevents me from calling in sick and taking mental health days from work, and she's right. It's a product of where I grew up and the example of going to work every day to provide for your family that I saw that instilled that in me. Mea culpa.
But, of all those places I've lived the only place I've felt like I've belonged has been Oregon. Way back in July of 2001 T and I took our only vacation to date. That summer we went to see her mother in Seattle, rented a car and travelled to Eugene. The week we spent there was amazing. I can still, to this day, remember at one point her mother looking at me - she probably noticed the goofy grin on my face - and saying "Kevin, you're a Pacific Northwesterner at heart...you just weren't born here." Two years later we moved there and my life really hasn't been the same since. Last summer when we were in Seattle for a quick visit it was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders the minute we stepped off the airplane.
Friends came easier there...the things T and I enjoy doing in our free time flourish there...there are remote mountains, urban city life, an ocean and everything between in the borders of that state. There's really, really good beer. Professionally I hit my stride.
Those of you reading this in Michigan (or anywhere else for that matter) please don't think I'm disparaging your beloved mitten. I'm not. It too is a beautiful place with its own unique appeal. To you it is home, but for me it's just another place I've lived. A place that at some point I'll leave, hopefully to head back home.
Yep, you heard me. We've (okay I'm the one who suggested putting a timeline on it) got a 9 year plan. That amount of time will put me at 45 years old and I'm going on the record here and now: by age 45 our goal is to be living back in the pacific northwest, and ideally Oregon.
A guy has to have dreams, right?
7 comments:
Good for you guys for having a plan to get home. I hope you can do it in less than 9 years. I've never been there. It sounds like an amazing place.
It makes me tear up to read about it Kev. I still am searching for home and may be there, but I dunno.
I know how you feel about Oregon. I've spent a good deal of time in the Portland area (with an ex-BF who moved there) and the summer I lived there was a life-changing experience for me.
Follow your dream, follow your heart, and if it works for you and T, get back there and breathe.
Are you me?? Seriously! I think I could have written this post word for word, even down to the gypsy reference. In fact, my grandmother calls me a gypsy. Oregon is where I most feel like myself. I think that Oregon is state of mind, don't you?
"Friends came easier there...the things T and I enjoy doing in our free time flourish there...there are remote mountains, urban city life, an ocean and everything between in the borders of that state. There's really, really good beer."
By this description, it sorta sounds like New England...
Congrats on putting the plan together, K.
Heater - it does indeed, with one key exception: the lack of snow (besides the mountains)
Kevin,
I admire people with a plan. After reading about your gypsy adult life, ive come to realize ive led a boring life location wise. Ive lived here in the valley of the sun all of my 37 years ( well except for the first 5 months of my life when I was still in Germany ) Other than changing suburbs, this is all Ive ever known. I too want to get to Oregon someday. Maybe someday we'll both be up there. I wish you and T the best of luck with your plans!
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