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This is close to my story. I moved to Denver with the illusion I could get a good paying job quick (no luck...easy to get a job that pays $14-15 or less and hour, but that won't cut it) and my car, which is necessary in this area, had to be junked because repairs were more than the value of it. Unlike you, I cannot wait to move. The mountains are nice, but everything else is sub-par to Chicago and Portland, OR, which was the other city I was thinking about moving to.
It hasn't lived up to my expectations. The unemployment rate is low, but the pay for a majority of the jobs is too low for the constantly increasing rent prices from the high demand and low supply of apartments plus other life experiences. Being completely land locked is getting to me. Up until now, I have never lived further than 40 miles from the shores of a large body of water (Lake Michigan and briefly Lake Superior...I know, not an ocean, but these are still large bodies of water). There is zero public transportation, there is little to no hiking within a 30-40 minutes drive, and not really an urban feeling i.e. high density, even in the downtown area.
The biggest problem is that I thought I would be around a lot of like minded people, but they are...well, it is tough to describe. I connect easily with people from the Great Lakes and Northeast, but natives and other westerners are on a completely different wave length. Nobody has any urgency. I don't know if it is the sun, altitude, weed, or any of the 7 possible combinations of the three, but most of the people seem to be out of it.
The funniest thing is that as recent as two months ago and before then I was the biggest cheerleader for this town. While I don't hate it, I am really indifferent. To this point it has been the biggest mistake of my life...a complete waste of time and money.
Very similar story here, only I don't hate where I moved to, it's just not where I want to be. I used to live in Chicago (long story why I left) and loved it, but ultimately felt it wasn't where I was supposed to be. While living in Dallas put my cross hairs on Portland after spending 2 weeks there and deciding Seattle was too expensive. 3 months out, I realized it was too risky to make a move to Portland with their low number of jobs. So I narrowed my choices down to Salt Lake and Denver. Ended up in Salt Lake. I'm definitely glad I made the move, as I hated Texas. But I feel you on the "it's not Portland or Chicago". Unemployment is low here as well, but the wages are low. I took me a year to get my wages up to where they were in Dallas, but It's not going to last. I don't hate it here. It was definitely a good move for me. I'm a happier person. I like a lot of things about it, but it's not Portland or Seattle. 2 places I'm dying to be. The longer I'm here, the more I miss nightlife and living in a bigger city. I figured I'd stay here 5 years before trying to make the jump to Portland. But I think i'm going to try and make that jump sooner.
Very similar story here, only I don't hate where I moved to, it's just not where I want to be. I used to live in Chicago (long story why I left) and loved it, but ultimately felt it wasn't where I was supposed to be. While living in Dallas put my cross hairs on Portland after spending 2 weeks there and deciding Seattle was too expensive. 3 months out, I realized it was too risky to make a move to Portland with their low number of jobs. So I narrowed my choices down to Salt Lake and Denver. Ended up in Salt Lake. I'm definitely glad I made the move, as I hated Texas. But I feel you on the "it's not Portland or Chicago". Unemployment is low here as well, but the wages are low. I took me a year to get my wages up to where they were in Dallas, but It's not going to last. I don't hate it here. It was definitely a good move for me. I'm a happier person. I like a lot of things about it, but it's not Portland or Seattle. 2 places I'm dying to be. The longer I'm here, the more I miss nightlife and living in a bigger city. I figured I'd stay here 5 years before trying to make the jump to Portland. But I think i'm going to try and make that jump sooner.
Just out of curiosity, what did you not like about Texas?
Just out of curiosity, what did you not like about Texas?
-the weather: 2 seasons, Winter and then the long brutal summers
-Allergy issues, I constantly had sinus infections in DFW and Austin.
-urban sprawl
-Texas ego's / arrogance / pride
-Nothing to do except eat and drink. The Arts were lacking, Perry cut Arts funding just before I left. North Texas offers nothing from an outdoors standpoint. The lakes in DFW are man made and overcrowded.
-the corrupt Texas Criminal Justice system
-Rick Perry
-Most of the Political Leadership
-George Bush
-apartments and houses are cookie cutter and all too similar
-the weather: 2 seasons, Winter and then the long brutal summers
-Allergy issues, I constantly had sinus infections in DFW and Austin.
-urban sprawl
-Texas ego's / arrogance / pride
-Nothing to do except eat and drink. The Arts were lacking, Perry cut Arts funding just before I left. North Texas offers nothing from an outdoors standpoint. The lakes in DFW are man made and overcrowded.
-the corrupt Texas Criminal Justice system
-Rick Perry
-Most of the Political Leadership
-George Bush
-apartments and houses are cookie cutter and all too similar
Hey, thanks for the response.
I live in Texas and I can definitely agree with you on most of that stuff. I live in east texas and I have to move in January. I thought about moving to san antonio, but honestly, I think I would rather live in colorado.
I live in Texas and I can definitely agree with you on most of that stuff. I live in east texas and I have to move in January. I thought about moving to san antonio, but honestly, I think I would rather live in colorado.
Colorado is lovely. You should consider it, especially if you agree with most of what I said, as not much will change with San Antonio.
For the most part, I have rarely regretted moving on, in fact, I think I tend to wait too long and often look back and wonder why we didn't make the change sooner.
Colorado is lovely. You should consider it, especially if you agree with most of what I said, as not much will change with San Antonio.
Yeah, ive been looking into that, unfortunately, my biggest thing is trying to get away from racism and ultra conservative thinking. I did do a little bit of research and I read that hispanics(which i am) are not looked on too favorably there. I don't know if thats true or not though.
There is SOME impact of who you are determining if you will be happy with whatever place you are in, but blaming it on a person for not being happy is a stupid ploy by terrible people. Usually those terrible people live in a terrible area and don't want to admit that new people there hate their failure of a city.
The reality
Often times people will find their level of general contentedness significantly impacted by the place they are residing. That impact could be positive or negative. For some people, it won't matter much, but for others, it will be a very large factor. For instance, someone with terrible allergies to tropical plants may be very unhappy in Hawaii. Someone that loves the heat and sun may be very unhappy in Alaska. In both cases, the person has not done anything wrong to cause them to be unhappy. It is in their best interest to leave that environment.
My real life example I made the decision to move to Iowa many years ago. It was a terrible decision and I lived in an awful little community. I hated the winter weather and I hated the summer weather. I hated the culture (people loved butter, hated working out). They loved nepotism, I loved meritocracy. It was a terrible match for me.
Over 18 months I researched every major city and state in the country - except for the northern midwest (too cold) and the northeast (too crowded & winter storm-ish). After doing that research (literally, I've read almost every city wikipedia page for cities over 150k in population outside of those areas) I discussed the options with my wife. We ranked our top few choices and went to view top option 1 and 2. During the trip, she interviewed for good jobs in both cities. She got offers in both cities and we moved to top option 1 shortly thereafter. We have been dramatically happier in the two and a half years since we moved than in the years prior to the move. We love the weather and the culture, two things that we found VERY important. For anyone interested, top option 1 was Colorado Springs, top option 2 was Denver.
I live in Texas and I can definitely agree with you on most of that stuff. I live in east texas and I have to move in January. I thought about moving to san antonio, but honestly, I think I would rather live in colorado.
It's great out here.
You can go out when its 30 degrees outside and it doesn't feel that cold because of the low humidity and strong sunshine.
Wonderful weather year round. Average highs in the mid 40s throughout the winter.
I moved from the Midwest over 30 years ago and it was the best move I've made because I've grown spiritually and emotionally in ways I doubt I would have, had I not ventured out on my own .
In those 30+ years of traveling and living throughout the US, I've tried to be more aware of my reasons for wanting to move. As the saying goes, the grass isn't always greener by leaving one place because I think it will be better somewhere else.
Now that I'm older, and, hopefully, wiser, I've come to realize that some of my moves were related to running away (from myself), as opposed to running towards the light of hope. When I was running away, fear was the motivator to just wanting to put an end to the perceived misery I was feeling.
IMO, if all I'm doing is running away from myself to avoid dealing with my internal problems, wherever I go, there I'll be.
This is my third time of living in Denver and I've grown more here than all other places I've traveled to or lived in. This has been one of the most difficult places to live for many of the reasons already noted.
There have been countless times I've just about given up and thought I might have to move away. In fact, I did leave, only to return. Destiny or whatever you want to call it, has brought me back, so that I do feel I have roots here and that means a lot to me.
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