This is the first part of a two part reflective piece. Part two will be published next Wednesday
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Good news: I survived my first year here. There were times, especially surrounding the car and apartment robberies, when I wondered if I had made a giant mistake moving here, but most of the times I am glad I did.
As I alluded to in my memoir piece at the six month mark Austin has helped me turn into a more social animal. For as outgoing as I am online I am normally much more shy in person. Or as one online friend once put it, I am less "cheeky" in person.
All of that has changed here for a variety of reasons - ranging from more to do, from family and friends closer to me, to more self-confidence - and I am both more social and outgoing in "real life," so much so that it sometimes means I write less often and it takes me much longer to read books since I spend so much time dealing with other projects. Keeping busy has, usually, also kept my issues with depression and anxiety at bay.
But before I say much more why not go back a minute and explain how I ended up here in Austin in the first place, far from where I used to live (Hagerstown, Md.)
The time: February, 2009
The place: Hagerstown.
The problem: I was between jobs and trying to decide what to do next.
Suddenly my sister asked me an excellent question: Why not, in the spirit of Obama and major change, move across the country and live in the same city as her and my two nieces? She did not know it but I had thought before of this but wanted to wait for an official invitation. I had been to Austin before with an ex-girlfriend for South by Southwest and loved what I saw. It was, and is, like a Berkley in the south.
It would be the first time I lived in the same state as my family in at least 15 years. This was not due to any ill will or anything - it was just that I moved form newspaper to newspaper, each time to a bigger one, from Sun City and Corona, Calif to Lake Havasu, Ariz., to Hemet, Ca, to Fayetteville, Ark. then to Hagerstown, Md.
But after a stint as an education reporter I decided it was time to switch sides, moving from education reporter to educator. I worked one great job involving special education and it was one of the most meaningful jobs I ever had despite having the lowest pay package ever. After a relatively brief but very expensive wrong turn (taking a one year program for aspiring teachers before realizing I did not have the right skill set to teach) I decided that special education would be my field of choice. I wrote about that a bit here.
So the plan seemed simple: I would move to Austin, enjoy the culture and find a job in special education. Well, two out of three ain't bad, right?
It was around this time that the economy collapsed. So it is that a year later I find myself grateful, in a way, that I was unable to get a job in any of the local school systems because the newspapers - which I have begun reading again after a first-ever personal break from reading news - are full of stories about school districts possibly laying off those employees. Instead I have a job I enjoy - most of the time .
My sister had another great idea: Instead of just moving why not make a party out of it? I thought I would test the waters to see if there was interest in the idea. It might be a weird wild way to merge my online life with my real life. I was pleasantly surprised and humbled to have people, in this article, invite me to that most personal of private property, their homes. Take note of that word "home" and its value because that will be foreshadowing for part two of this article, which I will finish after moving from my current apartment home to a new apartment home for reasons that will shortly become obvious.
And so the planning began, as did the fun theories about the REAL reasons I was moving to Austin.
The trip was, well, a trip. You can see some of the photos here - I made people pose with rubber ducks since i'm into fowl things. The upside was it was great to meet people face to face - the downside was how exhausting it was because when I wasn't driving I was trying to be on good behavior - remember not to sleepwalk in my tighty whiteys, etc. There were some problems along the way like when my truck, u-haul trailer behind it, broke down. Or on the speeding citation I received on the way out of Hagerstown.
But I arrived and began posting ways I could tell I was in Austin
Almost as soon as I arrived it was time or South by Southwest and since I was jobless I only participated by going to a few films but did snag interviews with directors of, respectively, a documentary about Kinky Friedman - and later got to meet Kinky at my church - and one about the Horseboy. That was pretty exciting and the latter led to interviews with others involving that family.
Then came a very weird day where I had a job interview (hooray and I got that job) but right before the interview I went out to my car, parked in a parking lot, to find my stereo had been stolen. Ironically there had been a story on NPR that very morning about how few steal car stereos anymore. I responded in total Scoop fashion, writing a letter I wanted NPR to broadcast. (They never did, the jerks.)
I still don't have a car stereo and the wiring in my truck is still sort of buggy. I try to learn from all things good and bad so I ended up writing a piece about what it was like to adjust to life without a car stereo posing this question: how has your relationship with music changed over time?
I, Scottman, found a new Unitarian Universalist church that I love and, when I could not find a job in special education, took first one job, than two, than three so now I'm working 29.5 hours there and most of the time quite like it.
I found an apartment and was excited about that until a fateful day when I came home to find my door ajar and realized I had been burglarized - they took my few possessions (dvd player, laptop computer, tv, etc) That sparked some emotional turmoil because I had never had something like this happen to me. Plus I was bitter toward the apartment complex which had acted like their security was much more impressive than it actually was.
Remember when I said I'd return to the importance of home? That's the connection. And that is where I am going to start for part two which will, appropriately, be written from my new home for by the time you read part 2 I will have moved to an apartment complex which in addition to not being the site of my crazy burglary will also not have been the site of the construction work so weird that it prompted this writing exercise.
Meanwhile, muse on this: What would be the worst possible job for a liberal pacifist to have? Answer in part 2 (and if you know don't speak up yet)
Â
Good news: I survived my first year here. There were times, especially surrounding the car and apartment robberies, when I wondered if I had made a giant mistake moving here, but most of the times I am glad I did.
As I alluded to in my memoir piece at the six month mark Austin has helped me turn into a more social animal. For as outgoing as I am online I am normally much more shy in person. Or as one online friend once put it, I am less "cheeky" in person.
All of that has changed here for a variety of reasons - ranging from more to do, from family and friends closer to me, to more self-confidence - and I am both more social and outgoing in "real life," so much so that it sometimes means I write less often and it takes me much longer to read books since I spend so much time dealing with other projects. Keeping busy has, usually, also kept my issues with depression and anxiety at bay.
But before I say much more why not go back a minute and explain how I ended up here in Austin in the first place, far from where I used to live (Hagerstown, Md.)
The time: February, 2009
The place: Hagerstown.
The problem: I was between jobs and trying to decide what to do next.
Suddenly my sister asked me an excellent question: Why not, in the spirit of Obama and major change, move across the country and live in the same city as her and my two nieces? She did not know it but I had thought before of this but wanted to wait for an official invitation. I had been to Austin before with an ex-girlfriend for South by Southwest and loved what I saw. It was, and is, like a Berkley in the south.
It would be the first time I lived in the same state as my family in at least 15 years. This was not due to any ill will or anything - it was just that I moved form newspaper to newspaper, each time to a bigger one, from Sun City and Corona, Calif to Lake Havasu, Ariz., to Hemet, Ca, to Fayetteville, Ark. then to Hagerstown, Md.
But after a stint as an education reporter I decided it was time to switch sides, moving from education reporter to educator. I worked one great job involving special education and it was one of the most meaningful jobs I ever had despite having the lowest pay package ever. After a relatively brief but very expensive wrong turn (taking a one year program for aspiring teachers before realizing I did not have the right skill set to teach) I decided that special education would be my field of choice. I wrote about that a bit here.
So the plan seemed simple: I would move to Austin, enjoy the culture and find a job in special education. Well, two out of three ain't bad, right?
It was around this time that the economy collapsed. So it is that a year later I find myself grateful, in a way, that I was unable to get a job in any of the local school systems because the newspapers - which I have begun reading again after a first-ever personal break from reading news - are full of stories about school districts possibly laying off those employees. Instead I have a job I enjoy - most of the time .
My sister had another great idea: Instead of just moving why not make a party out of it? I thought I would test the waters to see if there was interest in the idea. It might be a weird wild way to merge my online life with my real life. I was pleasantly surprised and humbled to have people, in this article, invite me to that most personal of private property, their homes. Take note of that word "home" and its value because that will be foreshadowing for part two of this article, which I will finish after moving from my current apartment home to a new apartment home for reasons that will shortly become obvious.
And so the planning began, as did the fun theories about the REAL reasons I was moving to Austin.
The trip was, well, a trip. You can see some of the photos here - I made people pose with rubber ducks since i'm into fowl things. The upside was it was great to meet people face to face - the downside was how exhausting it was because when I wasn't driving I was trying to be on good behavior - remember not to sleepwalk in my tighty whiteys, etc. There were some problems along the way like when my truck, u-haul trailer behind it, broke down. Or on the speeding citation I received on the way out of Hagerstown.
But I arrived and began posting ways I could tell I was in Austin
Almost as soon as I arrived it was time or South by Southwest and since I was jobless I only participated by going to a few films but did snag interviews with directors of, respectively, a documentary about Kinky Friedman - and later got to meet Kinky at my church - and one about the Horseboy. That was pretty exciting and the latter led to interviews with others involving that family.
Then came a very weird day where I had a job interview (hooray and I got that job) but right before the interview I went out to my car, parked in a parking lot, to find my stereo had been stolen. Ironically there had been a story on NPR that very morning about how few steal car stereos anymore. I responded in total Scoop fashion, writing a letter I wanted NPR to broadcast. (They never did, the jerks.)
I still don't have a car stereo and the wiring in my truck is still sort of buggy. I try to learn from all things good and bad so I ended up writing a piece about what it was like to adjust to life without a car stereo posing this question: how has your relationship with music changed over time?
I, Scottman, found a new Unitarian Universalist church that I love and, when I could not find a job in special education, took first one job, than two, than three so now I'm working 29.5 hours there and most of the time quite like it.
I found an apartment and was excited about that until a fateful day when I came home to find my door ajar and realized I had been burglarized - they took my few possessions (dvd player, laptop computer, tv, etc) That sparked some emotional turmoil because I had never had something like this happen to me. Plus I was bitter toward the apartment complex which had acted like their security was much more impressive than it actually was.
Remember when I said I'd return to the importance of home? That's the connection. And that is where I am going to start for part two which will, appropriately, be written from my new home for by the time you read part 2 I will have moved to an apartment complex which in addition to not being the site of my crazy burglary will also not have been the site of the construction work so weird that it prompted this writing exercise.
Meanwhile, muse on this: What would be the worst possible job for a liberal pacifist to have? Answer in part 2 (and if you know don't speak up yet)
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