Goodbye Oregon

Monday I will be leaving Oregon and heading to Colorado. I'm doing this for a variety of reasons: I miss my family, I need to find a place I can get a job and save up some money and there is a cool school there where I can learn more about jewelry making.

I really love Oregon. I have lived in California, Washington, Arizona, Colorado and now Oregon. I have visited Canada, Mexico, Hawaii, the Caribbean, and almost every state in this country and the Oregon Coast is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful places I have ever seen.

What really stands out for me though are the people here in Oregon. I have yet to meet one mean person. I have met more people and made more friends here in six months than I had in fifteen years in California. Just this morning my car wouldn't start because I neglected to put gas in it and my neighbor was over in a few seconds offering to help me. That never happened anywhere else I lived.

I will definitely come back to Oregon. Whether to visit or live I don't know, I have yet to decide where I want to end up permanently, if I end up somewhere permanently at all. I enjoy traveling and going new places, so who knows.

A New Life

View from my house

I've been gone awhile now, longer than expected. As I stated in an earlier post I decided to pack up and move to Oregon. It's been an interesting two months, most of which has been spent with limited computer access. It didn't go quite as I planned. I couldn't find a job and ran out of money due to having to live in cheap motels. One place was so bad that someone actually was shot and killed a few feet from my door.

So a couple of weeks ago I decided I should sell my car and just get something old and cheap so I could come up with enough money to put down on a house to rent. I then realized I couldn't find the title to my car. The day before I was completely out of money it finally came in the mail. I found someone who was interested in buying my car and who had an old, beater car they would sell me in return. Unfortunately they would not have the cash until the next day. At that point it was looking like I was going to have to sleep in my car for the night. The people who were buying my car said they would give me a $500 deposit on my car so I could have a place to sleep for the night. They were just some of several very kind people I have met in my travels.

After that I found a place to rent on Craigslist on the coast of Oregon. Portland is a lovely city but I have found living in the city to be stressful, plus I have always wanted to live by the beach but thought it would be out of reach financially. I drove three hours to go look at it and loved it and am astounded at the views. It is truly lovely. I hit it off with the owner and got his approval to rent it today. I am so thrilled. It is actually what I've always wanted to do. On top of that my jewelry business is really starting to take off. There are lots of cool shops where I'll be living and I am hoping to get my jewelry into some of them. My hopes are to remain self-employed now that I will have a place to live and get back to work on my business and jewelry making.

I took a huge risk leaving what I knew, with little money and no connections to go start fresh. It got pretty scary for awhile but in the end I got the life I have always wanted. I couldn't be happier. Doing that might not be for everyone, but I find it terribly sad to think I might have stayed stuck in a life I was so unhappy in because I was too afraid to take a chance. I think sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith and believe in yourself in order to get the life you want.

My new beach house