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Disagree. All of my family is in Florida, I am waaay up in Minnesota. Moving out of Florida was the best thing I could do for myself. I will never move back. I'd move back to Texas before Florida and I still wouldn't do that either. I am staying right here. They can come visit me for once. I visit Florida every year, may not be able to this year though. I love my family but I am not compromising my life just to be close to them. I am gonna start my own family here where I am happy. Grandma and grandpa can still see them just not as often.
There is a huge advantage to having family around. In my family there are lawyers, nurses, plumbers, roofers, mechanics, insurarer, an interior designer and a Shoe salesman. The amount of things that get done within the family at a discount is crazy. And then there are smaller things like and Aunt or Uncle with small kids wants to go out one night they can call a brother in law or a niece to help out. Gramps needs his stairs shoveled, someone can do it. That value is enormous Grandma there might not be being selfish but wants him to understand the value of Family before leaving.
I grew up in NJ just like you and moved to Seattle when I was in my mid-20's. You'll find after a while that the climate is no better or worse than the northeast. You may not get much snow in the winter, but you get long periods of rain, interrupted by dry periods that are almost as cold as in NJ. It's a wash, ultimately. Summers are dry and not as hot, but that, too, has its downsides. Dry summers, I found after a while, are just as depressing as anything you get out east, because everything looks dry and brown after a while. Also, every several years you get what I call "a summer without a summer" in which it never really gets very warm at all, except maybe for a few days here and there.
Then there is the issue of cost. The entire west coast is getting very expensive. My former boss' son recently tried moving to Seattle from Kansas City and gave up after about a month because he couldn't find an apartment in his budget.
I would not mind a Seattle winter. Having many days of drowsiness and cloudiness is fine to me and I disagree with you. The climate there is supposed to be better, which is why the place and other desirable places on the west coast are continuously becoming more expensive. The climate does not reach below 40 degrees except at night, but nights only stay in the upper 30s. Seattle rarely ever gets snow. I could not tolerate a humid northeastern summer again. I visited Seattle once in August and I enjoyed the chilly mornings. The air is crisp and smells nice there too. I enjoy a dry summer to be honest. This is all matter of opinion. I sit indoors all miserable in the east coast with humid summers, heavy piles of snow, and temperatures that exceed below the upper 30s. I don't mind the Seattle rain either. Too much sun tires me, but I do think I would need some sun.
Also, one other thing: Moving so far from my family, I found that nobody (except my father) really wanted to visit me. One of my 3 sisters visited me a couple times in the 90's, but my mother and my other 2 sisters never did visit me out there even though I was out there 27 years. A 5-hour plane ride is more of a hassle than I think you're imagining it to be. One reason I decided to move to the Midwest was to be a little closer to the rest of my family in the hope that a 3-hour plane ride was more do-able than a 5-hour plane trip.
I really do not take people seriously when they, "You are only a plane flight away". Some people cannot afford a plane flight at all. My mom's best friend from high school (who still lives in California) couldn't see her brother (who died in Indiana) or host a funeral for him, since neither her or her father could afford a plane flight.
There is a huge advantage to having family around. In my family there are lawyers, nurses, plumbers, roofers, mechanics, insurarer, an interior designer and a Shoe salesman. The amount of things that get done within the family at a discount is crazy. And then there are smaller things like and Aunt or Uncle with small kids wants to go out one night they can call a brother in law or a niece to help out. Gramps needs his stairs shoveled, someone can do it. That value is enormous Grandma there might not be being selfish but wants him to understand the value of Family before leaving.
In my "nuclear" family, the only beneficial person we have is my dad. He is basically the "maintenance guy" of the house although that isn't his career. He is a white collared worker for a living. My dad does all the plumbing work for our house, maintains our cars, landscaping for our house. Otherwise, no other has made life discounted. Well, my relatives give me gift money frequently, which is definitely something to be grateful, but from what I learned off of other grown adults' experiences, their relatives eventually stopped giving them a "silver platter of money" after they grew up. My major is an IT major, but it would not have much benefit to the family, except for fixing computers, which my brother could do easily. He wants to live in NJ forever.
Have you seen California lately. Go for it. All places have their problems but REALLY! I agree one can choose for themselves where to live but I don't think California would work for me. My family were the founding fathers. I have problems with illegals marching in the streets and the politicians agreeing that is all right. I think American citizens should be protected before those in this country illegally.
Apparently your ancestors had more b*** than you. The British, indians, the unknown.... They didn't cower in place....they overcame!
I would not mind a Seattle winter. Having many days of drowsiness and cloudiness is fine to me and I disagree with you. The climate there is supposed to be better, which is why the place and other desirable places on the west coast are continuously becoming more expensive. The climate does not reach below 40 degrees except at night, but nights only stay in the upper 30s. Seattle rarely ever gets snow. I could not tolerate a humid northeastern summer again. I visited Seattle once in August and I enjoyed the chilly mornings. The air is crisp and smells nice there too. I enjoy a dry summer to be honest. This is all matter of opinion. I sit indoors all miserable in the east coast with humid summers, heavy piles of snow, and temperatures that exceed below the upper 30s. I don't mind the Seattle rain either. Too much sun tires me, but I do think I would need some sun.
I think once you start experiencing Seattle winters year in and year out, whatever seemed good about them at one point in time, will wear off. They are pretty dreary. Also, it does go below freezing quite often, it's just that it's usually dry when it does. And to compound the situation, from about mid-December to mid-January the days are quite short. You will drive to work in the dark in the morning, and drive home in the dark in the afternoon.
The flip side of that I really hated after a while, moreso than the short days in the winter: From about mid-June to mid-July there are only about 6 hours of darkness. It doesn't get dark until about 10pm and then it starts getting light around 4 in the morning. That really, really messed with my sleep in the summer.
Seattle does get snow most years, but usually not a lot.
I really do not take people seriously when they, "You are only a plane flight away". Some people cannot afford a plane flight at all. My mom's best friend from high school (who still lives in California) couldn't see her brother (who died in Indiana) or host a funeral for him, since neither her or her father could afford a plane flight.
In my case, it wasn't that none of my family could afford a flight to Seattle, basically all of them could. It's just that it was a hassle going so far away to the west coast from the east coast.
No offense, but all of your posts on here genuinely confuse me. On another post you said you'd move to California to stay with relatives you like and enjoy the weather, and here you say you want to move to Washington State (which is known for pretty dreary weather from what I've heard) solely for climate and more positive people? There are going to be positive and negative people EVERYWHERE you go. I never got the whole "everyone in NY/NJ is miserable" stigma, because I myself am not negative (maybe there lies the problem?) and see negative people not only here but everywhere. That aspect is unavoidable in every corner of the country, sorry to break it to ya.
I know climate is a very big reason some people like to move because of conditions like SAD, or just genuinely not liking a 4 season/hot/cold climate. And that's fine, I myself at times wish i didn't live in NJ either because of the snow or colder weather. However did you ever realize that everywhere on the west coast except for Southern California tends to get cold-ish/dreary during the winter too? There are also many things here that the West Coast doesn't have. Although these things may not matter to you, there are certainly no beaches with personalities like the Jersey Shore in OR/WA, or even CA, plus better Italian food, access to a mega alpha city like NYC, easier/cheaper access to Europe, DC, FL, better overall public schools, less drug issues in general, etc. Yes obviously the west coast is expensive for a reason because it is a great place to live, however, that's why the NE is expensive as well, so the grass (like I've been saying) isn't always greener.
I'm not trying to preach to you to stay here because I prefer it, but I just think your posts are kind of off. Maybe try and take time to appreciate where you live and stop blaming it solely on weather and "negative" people.
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