In Portland,
people do have a deep sense of community and are generally warm and
welcoming. However, that Portland requires a fat wallet or 6 other
people sharing a living space. The rents in the city are cost
inhibitive for normal people. The job situation overall is hard to
come by unless you're a elite coder or have a PhD in something or
other. The fact is that there are a ton of super over qualified
people jockeying for a finite number of good paying jobs. For me,
I've been working in the cable industry for 15 years or so and have a
skill set that is specific to that industry. As such, I am limited to
what I can do and where I can work. Comcast has a large presence here
but for whatever reason I just could never get them to give me a
look. In my mind, it was a slam dunk. I mean why wouldn't you want a
guy that knows his way around a cable network and understands the
idiosyncrasies of cable culture. I was a supervisor for six years. I
managed 13 techs in two markets, launched a bunch of products, put
out fires, met with customers, and helped people get what they needed
to live their lives and run their businesses. That seems like it
would have value. It hasn't been worth much here.
My wife is a
Registered Nurse. Has been for almost as long as I've been in cable.
She actually specialized in cardiac which means she has worked with
open heart patients and knows a lot about the subject. Shes good too
and she cares about patients. Old school nurse that still advocates
for her patients and isn't there to just push meds. She cares for
them while they heal and has held their hands as they shed their
mortal coil. You would think that would have value. It hasn't been
worth much either.
Now I speak of
two Oregons so there's Portland and there's everywhere else. We ended
up living in the ladder. In that Oregon, people are very different.
They are not filled with a sense of community (at least in my
experience), aren't especially friendly, and certainly are not warm
and welcoming to strangers or new comers. The job situation is even
more dismal despite the fact that Nike and Intel call this place
home. Again, there are a bunch of overqualified people trying to get
the same finite jobs. So that left me out of work for the better part
of a year. I was finally able to get on with a agency doing
structured wiring for the very same Comcast that wouldn't return my
calls. The money was poor, there were no benefits, and there wasn't
much else. My nurse eventually found a job at a local hospital but
she told me that the nursing scene here was 10 years ago. It was
surreal in so many ways.
We struggled.
We kept telling each other it would get better. We kept believing
that our next big break was right around the corner. We knew we were
going to make some new friends and enjoy this great new life that we
moved out here for. The problem was it just never happened. People
don't want new friends and the jobs just weren't coming. Our money
ran out and I started selling things to pay the rent. Eventually we
did both have jobs but most of my money was paying for daycare and my
RN hated what she was doing. Loathed it in fact. My work was boring
and a chore to do everyday. We were paying 1800 bucks for a townhouse
that was too big for our needs after my son moved out. So much money
went out the door and it just never came in at the rate it was
leaking out. A year went by and then another.
This last month
we made a trip to Georgia to see my oldest daughter graduate from
college. We were back in the South and it was like we never left. In
many ways we thought that Oregon was a dream and we had finally
awoken from it and where back where we belonged. It had been so long
since someone said “good morning” or “how are you doing to
today?” I didn't know how to act for a minute. My RN put a job
application in for a hospital in a town near where we were staying
and they asked her to come in and work the floor and talk. They made
her a job offer with a sign on bonus that same day.
So here we sit,
asking ourselves if its time to cut our losses and try again
somewhere else. Somewhere that we at least know the rules and how
things operate. From my perspective the Oregon experiment is over and
has been a dismal failure. I have spent all the money I had in the
world and didn't get a whole lot other than heartache and
unhappiness. I don't regret the experience just how it all worked
out. We did our research and we planned as much as we could. At the
time it was what our family needed to knock the dust of our old lives
off and start something new. Not everything we try in life is a
success. I have found it's how you handle failure that defines your
future success. I am not a quitter by nature but this is done and I
have to let it go. I haven't worked all the details out as to how we
are going to get back. We need money and all I can do is believe God
will provide. He always has.
The moral of
the story is that taking risks is what makes life worth living. We
have to take chances. You don't know what you can do until you press
the boundaries of what you know. Only then can you grow.
