This year, it will have been 20 years since I packed up my life in South Central Texas and loaded it all into a Penske truck with a trailer and headed for Western Washington state.
I did not really have a plan other than a vague inner "knowing" that this is where I wanted to be. In retrospect, it was actually kind of reckless — all in all — because I didn't really know anybody here, and I had no job lined up, and I had no place to stay lined up either.
For the first six weeks I was here, I actually lived in a converted school bus RV, moving from campground to campground and basically being as far from my old life as I could possibly get myself.
It wasn't long before things work themselves out, though. I found a place to live just a quarter mile from the beach, I found a "profession" of sorts (more or less by accident) that I could practice from home and while on the beach, and I started writing again after a very long hiatus.
Looking back on this experience from 20 years down the road I would have to summarize it as going from living a successful upper-middle class lifestyle while being quasi-suicidal and perpertually stressed out... to living close to the poverty line while being largely content with my life.
I don't know if there's anything to be learned from that strange juxtaposition, other than perhaps that stress will kick your ass no matter what. And perhaps the secondary lesson is that making $10,000 a month when it costs you $11,000 to live is actually worse than making $2,000 a month when it costs you $2,000 to live.
As such, I can say quite emphatically that I would not trade my current life back to my old life for all the tea in China.
It leaves me pondering the question of whether or not geography really makes a difference, or whether there's more to moving from place to place than mere geography. I mean, I have to be honest... when I would get up and look out the window in Texas during the summers I would often hate the fact that it was 100 degrees (36C) outside and I was going to stay inside by the air conditioning event in order to survive, at all. Here in the Pacific Northwest I am definitely wet most of the time, but at least I'm not boiling!
But that's a matter of personal preference, more than anything.
I think the general life philosophy and the different ways in which people approach their lives between Texas and Washington state has also made a difference... that is to say I'm more in alignment with General cultural values here than I ever was where I lived in Texas.
And just to make it clear, I'm not sharing these thoughts as an excuse to go "Texas bashing," I'm merely writing them as a reflection of how my life has changed and how I have potentially changed with it.
I like where I am. I like the tallness of the trees and the eternal shades of green, and I like the fact that I walk around outside and there are no poisonous snakes or insects to worry about, and I like the fact that I can grow things in my garden and not have to shut everything down by the end of April because it's simply too hot for most plants to grow... lat alone for me to work outside.
I stated above, this whole musing is about personal preferences, as much as anything. And how those personal preferences end up informing our choices.
As a closing thought: Sometimes we only think we know what we want, and other times the most amazing "intuitive flyers" turn out to be exactly right.
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week ahead!
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Created at 2026.02.22 23:21 PST
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