Once we decided to take the leap and follow this dream and adventure; the harder part was to share with friends and family.  What was once a maybe someday thought shared with some friends and family was becoming a reality.

Family was first in sharing the news, then friends, bosses and co-workers.  Different people knew at different times.  It was exciting news, life changing news for us and those around us.   Everyone has been supportive and happy for us.  They are also sad to see us leave and don’t want us to go.

For me it’s not goodbye or sad because I know that we can still be connected, it will just be different.   We won’t be across the street, in the next office, 10, 20 , 30 minutes away anymore.  We will be in another state, doing different jobs and visiting by either driving 10 hours or via an airplane.  But we will still be connected, just the how and frequency will change.

We will now have a causal hello via a text message, Facebook Post, Instagram message, this blog, emailed note, post card or via the phone.   Today we have so many ways to keep in touch and say connected. We have our web-camera’s
ready and Skype accounts setup.  It will require more of an effort to keep connected and some of us will drift apart.  Some of us will grow that connection and value the quality of our time together and nurture the time apart with the tools available.

The one thing in life is constant is change and making that statement doesn’t change how hard this is for everyone.  My hubby and I have been thinking, planning and  dreaming about this for a long time.  We have had more time to get used to this idea.  For those that we shared the dream with they knew this is a possibility but not just if it was just talk or if it would become a reality.  Then there are other people where this is coming out of left field and they are hurt that we didn’t share our dream with them.  No matter which group you are in, the feelings you have are valid and adjusting to change takes time.  For us we are excited about what lays head and positive.  There will be days that we will miss everyone and question our choice.  Those are the times we need to stay grounded to our dream and pick up that phone to keep our connections alive.

What ways do you like to stay connected to friends and family that are not local?

Tiffany

Embrace the Journey

It is hard to say when the idea of leaving California started to form.  Was it when I was in my early teens visiting Northern California, Washington and Oregon with my grandparents?  I remember how green Oregon and Washington were; seeing waterfalls  and the rain.   I also remember wanting to leave California before the big one (Earth Quake).    That is before I learned about the pacific ring of fire and about volcanoes in the  cascade mountain range;  I was in my early teens in the 80’s without the internet.

Flash forward to the summer of 2004, when we go on a family vacation to Oregon. Visiting Carter Lake, Bend, Three Sisters,  and Florence. Exploring Central Oregon to the coast, I knew that this state was where we might want to live.  So my hubby and I made the statement when the kids graduate from school we will move north or maybe east as far as Utah.  So we spent the next 12 years taking vacations, reading and learning about different places to move.  At 40 I subscribed to  Where to Retire Magazine,
not that our move would mean retirement but it could be our forever town.  We also read books:

                     

The criteria for us for picking our new state or town:  Lower cost of living, Airport within an 1 drive, no humidity, less traffic than we have in the SF Bay Area, jobs available for IT skills,  not too hot, drive able to visit family and to go camping for the annual family reunion in Northern California.   We narrowed our search to Washington State and Oregon.  Portland, Oregon area seemed to hit our criteria the best.   We liked the diverse landscape, how it would be easy to drive to the coast or the mountains.  It reminded us of the things we liked the best about living in the SF bay area and all the outdoor options that were close by.

After several visits and lots of dreaming and  planning we made the decision to make this change.  I created a spreadsheet several years ago before we made our final location choice on what we needed to save and pay off in order to make this dream happen.  The target time frame was 2016/2017 depending on where our kids where in their college journey’s.

In late December after our most recent visit to Portland, we asked ourselves what was keeping us from taking this leap.  Fear of the unknown,  would we find new jobs, home, would we be okay with all the rain, would we be get home sick for our CA family and  friends.  Taking a deep breath, with lots of research, dreaming, planning we have taken the plunge to pursue our dream of moving to Oregon.

Have you ever pursued a dream that was fearful?  How did it turn out?