Moving Lesson
Another more Moving Story
Me and my wife have moved numerous times, from one city to another in Ohio, then from Ohio to West Virginia, then from West Virginia to Virginia and finally, from one city in Virginia to another in Virginia. Each have had their own unique challenges and obstacles, and I have to say, each experience was definitely a learning one.
The first time we moved was from Wilberforce, OH to the suburbs of Dayton, OH, it was a natural move because we were sick of being on campus and were working in the city anyway and figured that it made more sense to be there than it did to be on campus. The downside was that, having to commute into Wilberforce, from suburbs that were on the side of town furthest from the campus we lost motivation for going to school altogether. That wouldn’t have mattered if we had built a solid foundation on the jobs that we were working; we could have inevitably taken the money from the jobs and paid for classes and finished up that way.
The lesson here is that if you are going to move away from a conservative solution to your financial problems, you have to take a radical approach to creating a foundation elsewhere. I’ll never knock education, because it is essential; if you aren’t going to college you’re getting a certificate or learning valuable skills on the job, but it is a conservative option that assumes a few factors will remain in place. One is that you will always have the money to finish school, regardless of whatever else happens, second is that you can acquire the money to finish school if the money is not already there for you, third, of course, is that you have the resolve to finish school and are sincere about it.
When school is a means to an end you will inevitably seek an easier means to that end if you cannot rationalize the differences and importance of finishing up one way as opposed to another. Moving should be seen in the same light; if you are going to move from one city to another what are you really doing it for? Unless you know for sure that you can make more money in the place you are moving to, you’re rather foolish for doing so. Everyone will attempt to instill fear in you about the move, but regardless of what expenses are where you’re moving, you’re always better off having more money to contemplate than you are having less money to worry about. You may be making $8 an hour, and only paying $300 in rent and that seems great, but chances are jobs are rather difficult to come by where you’re at. You could make $12 an hour and pay $700 in rent, but you could get a job the next day if this one doesn’t work out. It is a sacrifice but one worth making; having a lot of money in the bank is useless if you cannot spend it the way you need to where you live at.
Our second move was from the suburbs of Dayton, OH into the inner city. We didn’t really have much of a choice in the manner because we weren’t doing right with the rent where we were at, and it wasn’t even as though we couldn’t afford it either. But at the time all it took was to get behind on the rent 2 or 3 times to be evicted; new apartments were being built all the time in the suburbs and companies weren’t that stressed to have you stay there, it was a sellers market at the time.
We did okay for a long time in the inner city, until we picked up other bills; an automobile payment, furniture rentals, etc. We were always buying automobiles that were junk and cost about as much to rebuild as it did to own them. The lesson to learn is that you have to have control over your expenses; you may want to downgrade to get out of your situation, but if you pick up additional responsibilities your situation hasn’t improved one bit. We had to drive 15 miles out of the way to find a decent grocery store, or walk 3 miles to a local store that sold spoiled food. In suburbia grocery stores were but a few blocks away.
The inner city only reflects the economic conditions of the metropolitan area overall. If the suburbs do well, and the inner city is hell, it only says that your town is dying and people have built up the suburbs to get away from the city, redistributing their wealth along with it. These are the same people who like the area enough to stay close to the city but hate the inner city enough to move out of it, yet do not have the initiative to try somewhere else entirely. They do not hate what the city could be, but do hate what it has become. When visiting towns, take a mental note of the differences between neighborhoods in the city and the suburbs. Ask questions, the more research you do, the better prepared you will be.
Feeling stuck in Dayton and dealing with the circus of high crime, poverty, and shifty jobs we figured we’d give it a shot elsewhere. I moved in with my inlaws in an area that was okay if you were well established but no so good otherwise. It seemed to be more of a commuter town where people pretty much stayed to themselves, unless their work was in that town. I had a one way commute to a job in another state an hour and fifteen minutes away if the weather was such that I couldn’t travel back home. Plus I was only making $8 an hour.
The lesson to be learned here was the travesty of paying state taxes to two different municipalities. In fact I’m still paying state taxes, which are being garnished as we speak. I inevitably moved to one of the suburbs of that town, but the damage was already done. That job lasted for a while actually, but the major employer was the University, and the bulk of the rest of the work was in factories, which I didn’t have a lot of skill at, though I did give it that good old college try. I just wasn’t fast enough for it.
When I did loose that job, and tried to get back into the type of work I was accustomed, it was anywhere from 20 minutes to well over an hour away. I had to get the work first in order to get an apartment, but couldn’t get the apartment because I could never get the work. I did manage to get another interview where I was at, but was serious considering moving to Charlottesville, which seemed to be more in line with where I wanted to go. But unless you were living in Charlottesville, you weren’t going to hear about the jobs there, as there wasn’t much to be found on the Internet job boards. Some of what I did come across you had to be overqualified for.
We were at a crossroads; I figured I could backpack and work up in Northern Virginia and come home on the weekends. Rent was outrageous, but then again the jobs I was coming across would make it worthwhile if we were both working up there. I must have told this story like a million times for anyone who has asked how I ended up in Chesapeake. My mother was pressuring me to move back to Akron, but I was looking at the wages up there and comparing them to where I wanted to go. Even in Cleveland, it still didn’t sit right with me, though Cleveland was a town that intrigued me while I was growing up.
On a whim I decided to apply for a job where I’m living at now, and it all worked out. I was okay with it at first, but I’m thinking about putting in that old college try at moving just once again. A lot of it is greed and the addiction of seeing just how much I can get with what I have to have, the other part of it is that I’m still not exactly where I want to be at. We still talk about heading up to New York on weekends, or checking out any of the other cities on the coast where I may have a chance in hell of making more money. I figured it’s worth it to try, and I’m restless unless I feel that there is some upwards momentum of some kind. Then again perhaps life isn’t all about that; making the money so that you can have the disposable income for stuff you probably do not need. But without that what is there to look forward to I wonder; whatever you do, wherever you find yourself, you may have found what feels like home to you or you may be restless. Perhaps you are supposed to see remote parts of the country, of this world. Perhaps you want those notches on your belt, as I sit looking out the window contemplating it again, watching download free ringtones tracfonefree polyphonic ringtones usacingular free phone real ringtonesfunny free mp3 ringtonesfree downloadable mp3 ringtonesinfo personal polyphonic remember ringtones voice,info personal polyphonic remember ringtones,info personal polyphonic remember ringtones sprintringtones converter,midi ringtones converter,converter joy ringtones serialmp3 ringtones creatorfree phone ringtones samsungsamsung mobile ringtones,samsung ringtones,free samsung x427 ringtonesfree ringtones from jamster,free info jamster remember ringtones,free jamster ringtonesmobile phone ringtones tdownload lg phone ringtones,download ringtones to phone,download info phone remember ringtonescrazy download free frog ringtonescricket wireless ringtonesdownload free christian ringtonesfree lg ringtones verizon wirelessfree ringtones verizoncomputer download free ringtonesmusic nextel real ringtonesfree ringtones converterfree arabic mobile ringtones,free arabic ringtones,arabic free info remember ringtonescell free lg phone ringtonesfree ringtones for alltel phonenextel ringtones programno fax payday loancheap loan payday,cheap loan long payday termquick payday loan same day,loan online? payday quick ?,loan payday quickfree loan payday,hassle free payday loan,interest free payday loanno checking account payday loanbest payday loanonline payday loan applicationlow cost payday loanguaranteed no fax payday loanfaxless loan online paydayfast cash payday loan,payday us fast cash loanpayday loan in canada,canada in loan only payday,canada loan online paydaylow interest payday loanno fax payday advance loanpayday loan cash advance loancompany loan payday,how to start payday loan company,starting payday loan companyaafes loan payday30 day payday loaninstant loan online paydayfast cash payday advancecalgary payday loanaccount loan payday savings,account loan payday savings using,payday loan in savings accountcheap payday loanquick payday loanfast cash advance payday loan the next apartment being built into the heavens, or new lanes added to the roads to accommodate even more traffic, there are mixed feelings about moving, something I am too lax to do, yet something that inevitably needs to be done. Conflicted as usual, but then again I wouldn’t have it any other way …
