Everyones leaving, Where you all going? (Springfield: house, rent, motel)

[malamute]

Originally Posted by wally44

I dont consider it abandoning my state. Been here 40 years and my family and children are number one priority. With no jobs to support them, roof over their heads, college expectations etc.. It's time to go. Most importantly to provide for them, better weather, cost of living on and on.. Good luck with the roads, and Michigan has talekd or tourism for years. Not going to happen.

It's not abandoning your state. I left Michigan for weather and sunshine reasons but I still think it's a beautiful state and I like to come back every summer.

If I ever retire, I wouldn't mind being a reverse snow-bird, living mainly in a warmer climate but going up there for the summers. For me it's not about the economy, I just need more sun and summer weather than Michigan has and hopefully the economy will turn around up there but anyone leaving for jobs certainly has a right to want to work.

The bad thing for Michigan is that the more motivated and the younger people will leave out of necessity and those who stay behind will be those who are unable to work or don't wish to work. Sometimes the pilgrim spirit and hard times weeds out the more ambitious which doesn't help when things turn around.

[wanderer74]

We've known for over a year that we had to get out of here, but we weren't able to leave easily last year. I graduated in August and we figured that we would wait through this school year to see what kind of employment prospects I was able to find and then revisit the idea of moving again this summer. Because we have three school-age kids, moving during the summer is far preferable over pulling them out in the middle of the school year. Well, after almost this whole school year, the best job opportunity I've been able to find since getting my BA was part-time at Starbucks, and I just got that this week. I've been applying for jobs out of state and I usually at least get a phone interview for those jobs or am asked to take a test online. Though I haven't yet been offered a job, at least I'm getting interviews for the out of state jobs! I haven't yet even gotten a single interview for the full-time jobs for which I've applied here in MI.

I'm applying to jobs in three areas: Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth (where we used to live before naively moving back to MI) and Nashville. If I get a job in Atlanta or Nashville we'll obviously end up there, but if I don't get an offer we're planning to move out to Dallas/Fort Worth this summer. I have a job I can start there if I want to, but I am looking around in case there are slightly better opportunities in a state a little closer to home than Texas. One way or another it looks very likely that we'll be in a new state in a couple months - which is scary and exciting at the same time!

[actinic]

Originally Posted by malamute

Sometimes the pilgrim spirit and hard times weeds out the more ambitious which doesn't help when things turn around.

On the contrary, Churchill said it best ...

The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.

The adversity will make Michigan stronger, of this I'm certain.

[Michigansnowflake]

Its not hard for everyone. We just refied, reduced our 30 yr to a 20 and rolled our land payment into it as well. We will have money to pay off our credit card and medical bills. My husbands work is going like gang busters and will be on overtime all summer, and into the future. Life is great here in Michigan, I will never leave.

[malamute]

Originally Posted by actinic

On the contrary, Churchill said it best ...

The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.

The adversity will make Michigan stronger, of this I'm certain.

I disagree. But it can all depend. For some there's nothing like the adventure of pulling up roots and proving to themselves they can make it somewhere else, that they don't need the familiar but can adapt to new surroundings, new people.

Some people might find their adventure in surviving hardship, accepting it, going without things they once had.

Everyone is different but "propelled" and "stepping out of our ruts", "searching for different ways" often means packing up and heading out to find your destiny versus sitting in one place hoping it will somehow show back up again.

It can be a bit uncomfortable leaving the familiar and heading out to new places, and it would depend on what someone wants and can handle. For myself, joblessness would be far too uncomfortable to tolerate, but moving anywhere would not be. I can take the insecurity of a new job, new people, new town, new state over the insecurity of gaps in my resume and poverty knocking on my door. I'm not someone who can sit and wait for something I want, I'm going to go out and find it, whereever it is.

Of course not everyone in Michigan is in that spot, many people are doing very well.

[bryan61]

Indianapolis. Wife graduated with a degree in accounting and found a great job with the DOD. I love the UP but after 30 years of struggling in the Escanaba Gladstone area the winter of 2008 will be a good one to put in my rearview

NAHB: Indianapolis Maintains Title of Nation's Most Affordable Housing Market

[tjay]

moved to columbia, mo in january.....my husband and i both got jobs. i was laid off in michigan a year and a half ago and could not find a job for anything. there's too many people applying and not enough positions. even the temp agency never called me back. my cousin had to enlist in the armed forces in order to support his family and being out of work for 3 years (not to mention losing a house and a business). i miss michigan HORRIBLY....all my family & friends are there, but mostly i miss the fresh air and the trees and lakes. winters suck, but summers are the best. i don't miss the people that much, people are much more laid back here, the only way i can describe it is 'less intense'. strangers actually talk to each other here, without fear in their eyes. winter has been extremely mild too. i wish i could go back to michigan, but just can't see it happening. missouri is 'ok', but its not home. i'm having my first baby in july, with no family around me. it makes me sad that i won't be able to take my daughter 'up north' with vacations on the great lakes like i grew up with. or show her the sleeping bear dunes....

[malamute]

Originally Posted by tjay

moved to columbia, mo in january.....my husband and i both got jobs. i was laid off in michigan a year and a half ago and could not find a job for anything. there's too many people applying and not enough positions. even the temp agency never called me back. my cousin had to enlist in the armed forces in order to support his family and being out of work for 3 years (not to mention losing a house and a business). i miss michigan HORRIBLY....all my family & friends are there, but mostly i miss the fresh air and the trees and lakes. winters suck, but summers are the best. i don't miss the people that much, people are much more laid back here, the only way i can describe it is 'less intense'. strangers actually talk to each other here, without fear in their eyes. winter has been extremely mild too. i wish i could go back to michigan, but just can't see it happening. missouri is 'ok', but its not home. i'm having my first baby in july, with no family around me. it makes me sad that i won't be able to take my daughter 'up north' with vacations on the great lakes like i grew up with. or show her the sleeping bear dunes....

Why not? About the family vacations on the lakes, sleeping bear dunes and all that? I left Michigan years ago but my family knows and loves the state very much and we always vacation there.

I know there are other places to see and sometimes I wish I had more time to see them but at least our big 2 week summer vacation is reserved for Michigan.

What's nice about vacations is you tend to spend your time actually doing the fun things, things the tourists do while the hometowners have to go off to work.

Missouri is a beautiful state also that I would like to explore more but it's half way to Michigan so I'm usually in too big a hurry to stop and see it.

[malamute]

Even though my kids are growing up in a mild weather desert, they also know all about canoeing, tubing down a river on a hot summer day, fishing, camping on a Great Lake, they've been to the Sand Dunes many many times. They know about hiking to the falls in the UP, they know all the Michigan things, the Edmund Fitzgerald, the local ghost stories, the Cherry Festival, Port Huron, Mackinac Island, Grand Rapids. Daily they check out the Gaylord web cam to see how the snow looks or if the deer are there eating. They might have seen more of the state already than some Michigan natives have.

[Cycle730]

wow - just discovered this forum and it's heartbreaking how many people have had to leave Michigan. I was born here too - lived in GA for awhile, came back, but now I'm weeks away from my B.A. and have been temping for 16 months with no perm job in sight, in spite of great skills and references. If people can afford to stick it out, great, but I feel that I don't have a choice. I'm thinking about Chicago, only because it's close enough for family visits. I'll have to rent anyway and maybe sell my car. If anyone else has gone (or plans to go) this way, I'd love to hear about it.