Again. It seems like that time in my life has come around again, as it is wont to do every 3 years or so. It's time for me to pack up and leave... start all over fresh again somewhere new, since I'm currently stuck in a steaming, waist-deep pile of mistakes I've made and I can't seem to shake the resulting baggage on my own. A long time ago I wrote a little bit of something about how I am prone to get up and leave when this kind of thing happens, and I think it's finally happened again.
Witness:
Two years ago, I was The Peach in OkCupid's Extra-Special Super-Accurate Always-Right Never-Tries-To-Hook-You-Up-On-A-Date-With-An-Unwashed-Overweight Nutjob Personality Analyzer. As of two minutes ago, I am now The Sudden Departure. Giggle a little bit folks, but after I read that tag, I couldn't help but die a little inside when I had to admit that OkCupid got it on the nose. I am looking to leave.
So here's the poll, folks. You help me figure out where I should go. Go over to the toolbar on the right and clicky to cast your vote, then leave me a response (by clicking on the "comments" section at the bottom of this article, just in case it wasn't clear how the user interface works here!) justifying your decision. The choices are:
a) San Francisco/Bay Area
Pros: Come on. It's San Francisco, the most fabulous place on earth. Great weather, great food, more and more friends have moved out that way in recent years, great bars, good goth scene, MAJOR TRAVEL HUB (SFO goes to nearly anywhere I would want to go by plane), close to home if I should ever worry about my mother's well-being, UC Berkeley is close by and I could get another degree.
Cons: It's starting all over again... a little too close to home. I think it'll be different this time; the family's more likely to respect my space. But then again, we are Asian, so you never know. I might come home one day to find that my mother somehow sneaked an extra key to my apartment, got in there and put a plastic sheet down on top of my memory-foam mattress, steamed the place up with stinky chinese herbs, and disposed of all my brewing equipment "for my own good". In addition to the potential meddling Asian parenting, I'd have to go through the job-searching process all over again and cross my fingers in hopes that I'll find a job as fulfilling and fun as the one I have right now. Parking is a bitch. Especially parking on a hill.
b) San Luis Obispo
Pros: Access to really good fresh fruits and vegetables (Christopher Reeves), temperate, biker-friendly weather all year round. Got a job I know I'll love waiting for me if I play my cards right and make the transfer, company might pay to relocate, CalPoly SLO is right in town, might be able to get education financial assistance from the company so I can get another degree, might be able to buy that adorable house in Paso Robles that I dream about sometimes at night, decent drive to visit mother if I ever worry about her well-being.
Cons: Oh, man. Talk about a boring place. I guess I could take up surfing all year round to pass the time. Or I could go riding a lot (a WHOLE lot). No discernible nightlife scene that I'd be interested in, a pain in the ass to get to any real metropolitan city, the "major" local airport only services crop-dusters (heh heh. Say it with me now. "Crop dusters." It's funny), and no friends living within reasonable driving distance to visit during the week. I'll probably need a lot of alcohol to keep me going, and a couple of solitary hobbies to boot.
c) Somewhere in Arizona
Pros: University of Arizona has no specific GRE subject requirements for the MEng EE program, their physics department is rumored to be good and I've always said that if I could do it all over again, I would have gotten a BS in Physics. It's a drastic change of scenery if that's what I really need to start a new life all over again. And it might very well be. Besides, the desert is gorgeous. I love daytime average temperatures in the 60's in the winter, and the heat in the summer is at least dry heat (and not the unbearable liquid bullshit that has us drowning in upper-lip sweat every summer on the east coast). I could probably leverage my current work experience to work with another one of our sister government contractor companies and get another job easily. Lastly, and probably most retardedly, it might give me a chance to see for myself what would happen if I removed the 2500 miles that separate me from someone that I think I might love, but who might very well not return the sentiment in kind. Could be a soup sandwich. Could be the best thing I've ever done. What was it that Geoff Schmidt once said to me? "Son, it's better to regret the things that you have done, than the things that you haven't." At least I'll never wonder "what if..."
Cons: Wait, what am I thinking? There's NOTHING REALLY THERE. I mean, it's a good thing I like sand and cacti and all, but really, there's probably a limit to how much sand and cacti any one person could take. There's a university I could probably get into, but there's a lot of those around the country. There's another job I could have. But my most compelling reason is "I want to know whether there is something there for me or not." Honestly though, given my truly amazing track record and my astoundingly bad taste and bad luck in all things remotely related to love, any logical observer could just say "NO KIM, THERE IS NOTHING OUT THERE FOR YOU. STOP BEING SUCH A DELUDED, WEEPY, FLACCID ASSHOLE - NOBODY IS EVER THAT LUCKY, LEAST OF ALL YOU" and probably be right. Odds that an amazing man who hardly knows me feels the same way that I do about him are *awfully* low.
d) Other
If other, please indicate your location choice, and state reasons. "Massachusetts" and "the East Coast" are all invalid locations because the East Coast is a loathsome and irritating place to live (see entry "Why the Pilgrims Died" for details).
Let the voting begin!
Further bulletins as events warrant.
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8 comments:
your issue is really about social life. workwise things seem good and i am sure that you can find equally good/interesting work now that you have good xp under your belt. the SF/Bay area not only has potential work but has the best social night scene for you. plus its another good excuse for me to go visit..:)
btw we need to hang again. ill be back in town at the end of the week. ill ping when i get in
...because JDR and I will be near the SF/Bay area soon!
Posted anonymously on behalf of someone who has some hangups about hitting the "respond" button on a blog:
"i voted arizona because your logic sucks."
If you make your company pay for you to move to Obispo, then it'll be much easier for you to transition to SF/Bay (and cheaper) once you finish up whatever the contractual stipulation clause is on the move (aka the "Don't you move on our dollar and then leave, asshole" clause).
sfo! for obvious selfish reasons, though i hope to move in a few years.
keep in mind that the south bay is far enough from berkeley to be annoying to those you want to avoid, and yet close enough to the city to be fun. you think you're going to have trouble finding a job in silicon valley? are you nuts?
the other options sound boring... and make it harder for me to see you.
The Bay Area has decent weather, good jobs, and enough stuff going on to be fun. I'm sure that if you choose your location properly, you can be far enough from your parents to have privacy. Plus, a lot of people that you know would live within an hour of you.
I can't imagine that you would have trouble getting a job with your background.
Run away to Europe and never come back.
SFO. If you know brewing you can come live in a beautiful place in the country (North Coast, not Jonestown, and points if you grabbed the reference). And, if you know robotics, you can make a mint.
Eric Berger (yes, that Eric) is getting a Ph.D in robotics at Stanford and being hot shit doing so. Come out here and show him up.
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