Nine years ago I sent the following letter to my friends, telling them about how I was moving to the Bay Area to “follow my bliss”. I hadn’t thought about the letter since I wrote it. Last year my friend Vickie wrote to me, opening with, “This letter still inspires me”. I thought it would be worth revisiting…<\/p>\n
At the beginning of June, I’ll be moving to California, the San Francisco
\nEast Bay to be exact!<\/p>\nWhy am I moving? I’m moving to follow my bliss.<\/p>\n
Last summer I went to the Burning Man festival in Nevada, an event with a
\nlarge population from the Bay Area. The event opened my eyes and convinced
\nme to more actively seek out my happiness. I found that I really took well
\nto the attitudes espoused by the people at the event and that I wanted to
\nexperience it more.<\/p>\nFor the last couple years, I’ve been living in Hackettstown, NJ, a tiny
\nfar-suburb of New York City. I’ve become a well-known person in the town,
\nrunning my own business and becoming a member of Rotary International.
\nPeople say “Hello” to me on the street. It’s a lovely place, but it’s a bit
\ntoo low-key for me. Unfortunately, it’s a little too far from NYC for me to
\ngo to evening events comfortably. Moreover, the life perspective of the
\naverage New Yorker or New Jerseyan is different from a San Franciscan. I’m
\nhoping that have more in common with locals there in that department.<\/p>\nThe business I’ve created, “Computer Guy” is very geographically based so
\nmoving 50 miles would be the same as 3,000. I’d done the New York thing and
\nBoston. Now it’s time for another move.<\/p>\nSo I’m packing my things, selling off detritus, and getting ready to leap!<\/p>\n
I’ve been thinking about some of the more specific reasons I’m making this
\nmove. If you think you might be able to help with any of the following
\nthings, gimme a buzz!<\/p>\nI’d like to live “in the middle of things”. I want roommates to be around
\nand, initially at least, a furnished short term rental. I want to walk out
\nmy door and be there already. I’ve spent many years being on the quiet
\noutskirts, -near- things. But I’ve come to realize that if a life is out of
\nsight, it is out of mind. If people and community are “just a short drive
\naway”, they are still too far away. I want to be able to trip over people.<\/p>\nCreatively, I’d like to find a subject I think I might be interested in and
\nfind someone to study under. I’m not sure what that will be but I’m hoping
\nI’ll know it when I see it. Maybe it will be experimental aviation, or
\nimprobable art. I’d kind of like to become a musician. There are a bunch of
\nthings I’d like to do but haven’t found critical mass for them where I live
\nright now. I’m crossing my fingers, and forging ahead.<\/p>\nFor employment, I don’t know where in going to land. I’ve been doing
\nSoftware Quality Assurance for 15 years and I’m pretty good at it but the
\nsoftware industry is a constantly changing entity. Maybe I’ll find a place
\nthere, maybe I won’t. I’ve thought, perhaps wistfully, about becoming a
\ncontinuity editor for films or such (I suppose I’m moving about 400 miles to
\nfar north for that). I’m just a bit tired of not actually making a “thing”.
\nQA is just a kind of proofreading… and very little of my dot com
\nemployment actually produced anything that is widely used. I suppose I’d
\nscratch that itch if I built a bridge or something, but that really isn’t in
\nmy skill set. ;-) It would be wonderful if my job was my passion.
\nCraigslist has 100 new job openings every day. We’ll see what happens!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n