Moving to the Ohio Valley.

Before I moved out here I thought that I was going to live and die in California. Never buying a house, always having roommates, always working two jobs. It it hard to get out that mindset, and if that has been your whole life it is very difficult to think that there is anything else that you can do with yourself. Then, the 30th birthday started to loom on the horizon and I began to look at options. What can I do, what can I learn, "what do you want to do when you grow up?" those sorts of questions. I was putting in my hours and getting a paycheck but that was all I was doing.

Then one of the employers offered us a move to here. Well, OK, not so much an offer as it was a "Move or lose your job, of, and the tech industry is imploding so good luck with that." I took the offer and rolled out this way. I stayed with a co-worker in the new facility and his family for NINE months while I got a place to live and life has been grand ever since. I own a house, got a whole new group of friends to hang out with, my job is doing work that is worthwhile and fulfilling and, for me the craziest thing, the house is going to be paid off in 3-5 years depending on if I keep paying extra every month like I am now.

A completely random offer to move has changed everything about my life. The original plan was to come out here, get paid, go back to California. The new plan is to say here, get paid and retire early.