Finding the Journey

There’s so much to tell. I’ve been hanging around Baltimore since I graduated in 2004. Now I feel like the Baltimore that was so great during my college years hasn’t been quite the same since I graduated college. It went from fun and exciting, to drab and boring. The things I used to love doing while in college became just “the same old thing that happens in Baltimore”. One part of me wanted to stay and make it work, but another part of me knows that I need to move and start afresh elsewhere. New city, new job, no more school… time to live!!! I guess growth requires change and since I wasn’t embracing the change, I wasn’t enabling my growth.

Of course, looking back, leaving in 2004/2005 would have been a bad idea. The computer field sucked everywhere else but the Northeast, so if I wanted to pursue this career, this was probably the safest place to be. So I put everything aside and concentrated on my career and on building a valuable skill set.

I guess deep down inside I always knew what I wanted, because I never accepted full-time positions, instead only accepting short-term contract positions, which allowed for hard change (environment and project) and (therefore) rapid growth. And after about 2-3 years, I now feel satisfied with my growth. I guess that’s all my body needed, because the little itch that I’d felt a couple of years ago, now requires action. I don’t want to say that I feel suffocated, but more so that I know that the big blue yonder is calling my name. All my excuses have disappeared and I’m ready for the next part of my life.

One of the biggest things I don’t like about the East Coast is the lack of variety in scenery and the shortage of outdoor things to do. Since I am rather outdoorsy, I knew that the first place I needed to look was towards the west. I started with Salt Lake City UT. I thought about the glory of snowboarding all year round, haha, but that was shot down when I realized that there are no software jobs in UT. I looked into Las Vegas, Reno, Oakland, other cities in CA, etc etc, but I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for. So while on vacation at the beginning of Dec, I had to sit down and identify exactly what I was looking for……and thus began the journey. What I was seeking could only be answered by identifying what exactly I wanted to achieve with this move. THAT is when I started to pick at specific things:
One of the things that stuck out was the strong urge to get to know myself and to grow.. It feels like it’s time to find out what I really want and what I really need in life. I feel like I am at a “make or break” point in my life and it would be great if I had a success story to write about this, later on.
Secondly, I wanted to work on my creativity. We seem to get into this repetitive cycle in life and slowly stifle our creativity. I want to change that.
The third thing that I wanted to get out of was the rigidity of my life. I want to get out of the work-home routine and have the freedom to do other things.
With these three things in mind, I came up with 4 things that I needed to look for in order to make this move worth it:
1)A walkable city with great public transportation – This went with both creativity and the need to break out of a schedule. The fact that I’m not tied to getting off work and getting in my car and making it home. I could get off work and walk home; I could get off work and walk to a gallery… just knowing that I don’t have to park my car (I can’t count the number of times I have backed out of doing something due to “parking”). And of course, I could get on the train and on the way home, I could sleep or think up the next great idea. Basically with this move I intend to get rid of the stress/restrictions of driving.
2)A city with a great software industry – Of course, any move out west should be a good move for this. But there is a particular kind of software community I’m looking for. It’s more the mom and pops and the guy in his basement programming for fun, as opposed to the Googles and Microsofts.
3)An affordable city – Moving west, I had to make sure I wasn’t hurting myself, especially with housing prices, and
4)A great outdoor life – It’s time to see the Big Blue Yonder!!!

So, guided by these four requirements, I did a bit more searching, sold my cars and I’m moving to Portland, Oregon: http://www.travelportland.com/

I don’t have anything lined up, but I’ve been jumping from contract to contract for the past 3 years, so that shouldn’t be a problem. As for a place to live, I’m working closely with my friend Craig on that….you may have heard of him….he has a list he calls craigslist. LOL! This should be fun! Me and my buddy leave Baltimore on the 8th of Feb and spend a week and a half on the road meeting different people and hanging out.

Join us as we make this life changing journey across America and as our lives unfold thereafter! Feel free to participate in this site; leave us a comment, sign our guestbook and most importantly join our discussion forum so that we may take this life changing journey and thereafter together!!