Or, a new adventure, same as the old adventure.
I moved away from Oregon almost exactly ten years ago for graduate school, and have been away (except for visits) due to the ins-and-outs of life and career ever since. I'm extremely happy to say that I'll be moving back to Oregon this spring. In a turn of events that seems almost too good to be true (not to mention a lot of hard work to make it possible), my wife and I will be moving to Corvallis, home of Oregon State University.
We will be putting Southern California in the rearview mirror with a mixture of sadness and gratitude, for although we appreciated a great number of things here, and made some wonderful friends, we never did feel that it was a good fit for us. When home is home the way Oregon is home, no other home will do.
Here are some really wonderful things about our soon-to-be hometown of Corvallis, Oregon:
- Highest percentage of bike commuters of any city in the U.S.
- LAB Gold Level city -- bike infrastructure everywhere!
- Literally the safest place in Oregon and the country.
- There are amazing parks/open spaces/wilderness areas in every direction.
- A vibrant, creative, innovative, and environmentally-friendly city and community.
- Creative culture the way the Pacific NW does it.
I'm excited that I can be riding my bike in the bucolic countryside in about ten minutes in any direction from town, and that we will be only an hour's drive from my dad and my childhood home (where my wife and I were married). I'm also excited that instead of being surrounded by several million people, I'll be surrounded by only about 60,000 people and lots of open countryside. Portland is only a couple of hours away, Eugene is just a little ways down the road, and all of beautiful Oregon is our backyard. We also have good friends in Oregon, and I'm looking forward to reconnecting with them, and of course making new ones. Oregon is where my heart has always been, and I'm so happy that I will soon be able to join it there.
The timeline feels quick, there's so much to do, so I may not be posting here much until we are settled, but I'll try to keep my reader(s) abreast of what's going on in the meantime. Not sure if I'll keep blogging here, or maybe start a new space for this new chapter in our lives.
