The other day after work my “team” met at an English pub to wish me well after I leave. Nothing real special to mention there, aside from the fact that “The Lion and the Rose” is easily one of the coolest pub names ever. While there I got to answer some of the usual questions I get from people, the absolute most common of which is “so do you have a job lined up there (Seattle)?” After indicating for the one hundred and fiftieth time that no, I do not, a gentleman I work with remarked that “that’s really out there.”

I wonder now if people associate me with that type of person you might once upon a time have called a rambler. The types that travel often and who can’t seem to build a foundation anywhere they go. Living in hostels, bumming from friends, working in intermittent spurts at low wage jobs, etc. The truth is I’m nothing like that. For most intents and purposes, I enjoy staying in one place. I enjoy having a somewhat regular day to day life. I don’t get uncomfortable living in one place for an extended period of time either. All of these characteristics seem at odds with the type of person who normally just “ups and leaves” without “having a job lined up.”

What I don’t understand is why people have a hard time comprehending or accepting my decision to move without first attempting to stereotype me. To me, my moving to the place I want to live is the same basic concept as picking out the car you want to drive or the clothes you want to wear. Capitalism allows for us to consider these kinds of choices, so why not take full advantage? Where I live is every bit as much a part of me as the other decisions I make, or the things I buy. It becomes a part of my personality, and plays a large part in my overall happiness. So why not shop around? Why not do my research and decide on the best available option? I do the exact same thing when I make large purchases. Consider the pros and cons, perform an economic cost/benefit analysis, and move forward rationally. In the past when I use this approach for decision making, I usually end up happy with the results.

I would ideally like to see other people deciding where they want to live, and taking steps towards living there. Greater social harmony would result, if nothing else. As well, it would instill in many of us an appreciation for the land we live on, the people we live with, and the local government. This is an inevitable result, because you would have researched these things to begin with in arriving at your decision. This contrasts strongly with simply being somewhere because of other circumstances, as in those situations we tend to take our homes for granted.

With the passing of time comes greater methods of both traveling and communicating long distance, and partly as a result of this I feel that the age of being essentially stuck in the place where you grow up is coming to an end. I don’t personally think that my moving to Seattle is “out there.” On the contrary, I think its the most rational decision I could have made.

That’s right, T-minus approximately one month until departure. In less than a week here I will be finished with this school semester, marking what may or may not be the last time I ever attend a university. Following that, I will be fervently (or perhaps not so fervently) searching for a job. As well, I seem to have accumulated a series of dates with individuals whom I may not see anymore following the move. Dinners.

As the time draws near, I find myself wondering how people in similar situations say goodbye. Fortunately for me, most of my loved ones, friends, and acquaintances are already spread out around the United States so my moving to another place doesn’t change our relationship much. However, despite this, I still feel as if I have to say goodbye to a great many things. I can think of at least a handful of people that I’m going to see in the next month that I may not see again for a very long time, if at all. I wonder, should that change anything about how I interact with them, or what I say?

Likewise, how do we ultimately say goodbye to our homes? I grew up in San Antonio, and have lived in Texas all my life. I’m moving elsewhere because I think I’ll enjoy elsewhere more, but that doesn’t change the fact that I grew up here, and I’ll always have some Texas in my blood. How will that affect my perception of living elsewhere, I wonder?

The combination of events of moving, graduating from school, starting my career, etc. function to make this a pretty large transition in my life, whether or not I choose to accept it. And perhaps because of those same things, it also feels like the end of an era. An era in which I am choosing to leave a lot of things behind, both literally and figuratively. What will it be like, I wonder, to shed that old skin, and bare the new layer to the elements as I am? I can imagine myriad possibilities, both good and bad. I suppose only time will tell.

Whenever people learn that I’m moving to Seattle, they always seem to have some experience with the area that brings up fond memories. A typical conversation goes something like this: I inform them I’m moving to Seattle, and their eyes kind of glance upwards and glaze over slightly as they reminisce and tell me about their wonderful experience there. This actually happens a lot more often than you would expect. It’s very rare that I get the response indicative of an ignorant sense of the place. In fact, only one comes to mind. The girl replied, “so you like coffee and grunge music” in a disinterested tone.

In only one instance have I ever heard anyone say anything negative about Seattle, either with or without the knowledge that I was moving there. Ironically, this one instance comes from my father, who in fact did know at the time that I was planning on moving there. His only comment about Seattle was that it has a notoriously high suicide rate. This is not at all an unusual comment coming from my father. This is the same man who, when I was about 16, tried to have a conversation with my cardiologist about famous people in history who have died at a young age from heart complications… while I was being looked at for a heart complication that I have.

So outside of my father, the general consensus is that I’m moving to a great place. Not that any of that really matters, but it makes me wonder. How many people would enjoy Seattle, if only they gave it a chance? Alternatively, how many people would choose to live there, if given free reign to decide? Now you might contend that we do all have free reign to decide where we want to live, but I seriously doubt the vast majority of the people I’ve met have actually considered moving there simply because they liked the place. The fact of the matter is that people don’t really think about how much they like their city, or some other city, in the context of where they live. People more often than not live where they do because they got a job there, or their family or friends live there. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but it has to make you wonder all the same.

The usual followup to people telling me how much they like Seattle is for them to ask if they can visit me. I probably have more people that have said they want to visit me than I have friends. Now I don’t actually expect half of them will ever truly make it out there, but it’s kind of funny seeing as how I don’t live there yet. All in all people seem enamored with the concept. Is it the idea that the grass is always greener, or something else?

The actual move will occur in less than two months now. Being the rock-hard stoic that I am, I can barely feel the murmurings of that foreign feeling of excitement, but they are present. I wonder how other people feel, being in similar positions. I wonder if they feel anything at all. There exists the possibility that we as a society are becoming entirely detached from the earth we live on. One place is becoming the same as any other. I’m attempting to find that oasis in the desert, to preserve, in part, an ancient piece of our history as creatures on this planet.