Coming to New Mexico--What's Your Story? (Albuquerque, Santa Fe: school, university, to live in)
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I moved to Albuquerque in late 2005 for a job opportunity. It was the type of offer I couldn't refuse. I was (and still am) young and mobile, married with no kids, so I was wiling to take the risk. Plus, the climate sounded pretty fabulous.
I came from New York state, so it was a total culture shock. I won't ever quite blend in, but I'm reasonably adapted. For example, I'll always be in a hurry to go nowhere, I fret at the idea of waiting in any sort of line where nobody seems to be in any rush, and I have strong opinions about what you should not be allowed to wear to work, a wedding, church, etc. LOL
It took quite a while to make friends. Most of our friends are fellow transplants.
We may not stay forever, but we really have grown to appreciate New Mexico!
I am an environmental scientist looking to retire from the northeast. I wonder if the Alamo group could use a general science teacher? Where would I go to find out. PM's welcome.
You are so right! I've been thinking about this all afternoon. If I had never moved from the first house I bought in Washington state in 1982 for $12,500, with payments of $100 a month, the house would have been paid for long, long ago.
I would have saved all the several hundred thousands of dollars spent on subsequent and far more expensive mortgages and all the expenses to move us from Washington to New Hampshire to New Mexico to Connecticut and back to New Hampshire and back to New Mexico again. I'm sure I could have retired years ago. I should have been more sensible, and I'll try to be in my next lifetime.
But--what can I say? We are fools or we are gypsies, but we have loved the journey. And, hey, we ended up in New Mexico after all.
Although I have been fortunate to visit the U.S. three times previously, my visit to ABQ in April was the first time in NM. I specifically went to ABQ for the Gathering of Nations powwow (just amazing) which was on for three days, but I stayed an extra week to look around. I had met a Pueblo gentleman online a few months earlier, and he very kindly offered to show me around all week, so I got to see a lot more than I thought I would, as a single woman travelling alone. I had no preconceived ideas about the place before I arrived, so I was totally unprepared for how much I would fall in love with ABQ. I was so impressed with how pretty the city is, and clean and tidy. And the wide open spaces in the country, and the mountains, just beautiful. I was also very lucky to meet lots of people through my friend. Crikey! Talk about a friendly bunch of people; I was made to feel so welcome and at home. It's now become my dream to move (retire) to NM in December next year, maybe spend two months at a time in several different towns to see which one I like best, but I'm thinking maybe Farmington to start with. As a non-US citizen, I realise it's not as simple as packing up and moving there, but I'm going to do all I can to make this dream come true.
But--what can I say? We are fools or we are gypsies, but we have loved the journey. And, hey, we ended up in New Mexico after all.
~clairz
Exactly! You can't put a price on the journey and I'll bet where you're at now is better than most on the planet. In hindsight, could you have ended up with more dollars? Sure, that's one of the benefits of hindsight. But the real question is would you trade who you are, and what you learned from your experiences for those dollars? Judging from your regularly balanced and thoughtful posts I'd be willing to bet 'no.'.
clairz: The way I look at is that if you lived in a lot of other places before winding up in New Mexico, it only serves to help you appreciate it more.
portia60: Best of luck with moving to NM! I'm working on it myself.
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I was (and still am) young and mobile, married with no kids, so I was wiling to take the risk. Plus, the climate sounded pretty fabulous. 
My story ..
