Let's hope that the approaching winter backs me up.
For more than a year now, I've tried to convince friends and family to make the move from Illinois to North Dakota, a move I made in Aug. 2008.
Despite the small glitch of last year's awful winter, which everyone local insists was an aberration and I'm taking their word for it, the move remains one of the best decisions of my life. And like most of my best decisions, it was made completely on a whim with little real thought put into it.
In the summer of 2008, I was in the market for a new newspaper job. I was prepared to make another call on all the resources the Eastern Illinois University journalism department alumni network could muster, which is more impressive than it sounds as long as you don't mind working in or near eastern Illinois. Instead, I realized that I'd lived my entire life in Illinois and and my wife had been here since she was old enough to remember. What fun is that? We're young and at the time we were childless, so nothing was really holding us down.
I love hockey and she loves Canada (a product of being a fan of some great Canadian rock groups in her early teens), so on that thin basis we decided to start applying for jobs in Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana. I did a couple of interviews and Williston was my best offer, despite the horror it caused my grandmother-in-law back in Illinois. She had lived in Bowbells many decades earlier and hated it. Technology has changed a bit since then, thankfully.
The adjustment hasn't been difficult. Living in a small town in North Dakota is no different than living in a small town in Illinois, there's just three times as many miles between you and the next small town. The people are nice, the weather isn't usually all that bad, and the economy is wonderfully insulated from all the problems the rest of the country faces.
I always shake my head in disbelief a little bit at all the people I know back home who are draining their savings and their patience looking for jobs that just aren't out there back in the Midwest. I make the pitch for North Dakota, but it just never seems to stick. The idea, like the state, is just too far out there for them to consider. Given the state of housing in Williston, maybe it's for the best that I don't bring a few more people up.
It probably doesn't help that my little sister is also recruiting for her new state. She moved out to California a few years ago to live in Orange County. We always were pretty different for siblings.
I've been out there to visit her, and it's not all that great. Yeah, the weather is fantastic and the ocean is nice. But who wants to live in a never-ending suburb that stretches for days in all directions (except for, obviously, west)?
I can handle a little cold in exchange for a place to live where my state isn't insolvent and a two-bedroom condo doesn't cost six figures.
Until my little secret weapon, the family's first grandson, was born a few months ago, my sister was winning the battle handily. She'd gotten a cousin to move out there and was on the receiving end of a lot more visits and envy. The baby seems to be turning the tide, and we'll be getting some more visitors soon. Maybe we can convince them to stay.
As long as it doesn't snow too much.
Comments
Steve Frame wrote on Nov 26, 2009 11:52 AM:
Kris wrote on Nov 26, 2009 12:49 AM:
The first time I ever stepped foot onto ND soil was when we were stationed at Minot AFB. I was terrified. We were moving from Turkey to ND??? One bad place to another??? Turns out that Turkey wasn't bad, in fact we loved it, and ND turned out to be a complete gem.
We got orders pretty quickly to New Mexico. That should have been better, as it was closer to family in CA, but ND stayed in our mind for the 3 years we lived there, and when an assignment at Minot came open, we couldn't jump back here fast enough. We managed to stay in the state after that move. Turns out there were people willing to swap orders we got to Arkansas for their orders to North Dakota. We moved over to Grand Forks AFB, and then took a special duty assignment back at Minot AFB to avoid orders to Arizona and be able to finish out our Air Force career here in ND.
The only way I will leave ND will be if you drag my cold, dead body out of the state.
It is funny that those of us who are refugees, tend to recognize what the born and bred can miss, and become almost rabid ambassadors for the state.
Whenever it comes up I tell people that I am a Californian by birth, but a North Dakotan by choice "
Michael wrote on Nov 25, 2009 8:42 PM:
Judy Burton wrote on Nov 18, 2009 5:05 PM:
So glad you have joined us in the ND- Living Sales Dept. We'll see you next summer. . . "