EPTOver 6 years ago I wrote this blog whining about my life. It happens. And here I am.
I moved out of California, into an apartment with 2 of my friends in Colorado that had moved away to pay off college debt and to attend college. Another of our friends lived in the area too. Everyone transplanted to Colorado it seemed. I got a job as a pizza delivery driver to make ends meet since I didn't know what I would do. Well within a few weeks I'm dating on OKCupid and I meet an amazing woman. An aerospace engineer, chemist, into a lot of the same stuff I'm into, open minded, and just a wonderful person all around. We date and we date and it's hitting off nicely. I feel a sense of purpose for the first time in my life. I want to be with this woman, more than I've wanted anything in my life. After a year living with the childhood friends, I move out, and move in with her into her condo about 30 minutes north of our apartment.
I get a job up north of where she lives, working as an operator at a plastics manufacturing plant. I see an opening for an IT Support Technician position. It seems entry level, and the company prefers to hire within, so I go for it. I get the job in competition with two other candidates because of my customer service background primarily. Still not much money, but it's the start of a new career. Went from 37k in California to 31k in Colorado, but now I'm contributing to a 401(k) which is 50% matched to 5% of my income, I have health insurance, there are stock options... It's pretty good.
I have hobbies. Outside of my former esports viewing hobby and playing video games... I'm becoming a cocktail aficianado. I ride a motorcycle. I'm developing a knowledge of cigars and collecting and aging them. I'm in the preliminary stages of writing a business plan for my own cocktail focused casual restaurant. It may never happen, but so what, I'm working toward it.
Sure I have my ups and downs still, everyone does. I've had some revelations as to what was my issue. Seems it was PTSD from my horribly abusive father as a child that I ran away from at 14 years old. But at least I know what it is now, it isn't just a random freak out, or a random wave of depression. I at least have some control over it in my life.
Point is, thanks for your words everyone in the last thread. It made me seriously consider moving to Colorado. Moving out of California and taking a chance on a new life was the best thing I ever did. It took awhile from that thread onward to leave for Colorado (left in 2012), but once I did it was amazing. I gave away 2/3 of my stuff to goodwill. Filled up my Ford Ranger with all I was going to have when I got there. Had 1500 dollars (after paying my share of first and last month's rent and the deposit on our apartment), and just drove from Cali to Colorado myself. The journey gave me a lot of perspective. The experience of leaving all that I knew for 2 and a half decades was amazing. It was a great decision.
A decision that the people here at Teamliquid helped me make.
Thanks.
We got married this year, had our honeymoon in Japan for 2 weeks. Everything is just amazing. Life gets better, when you are down remember there's more room to go up.
