For some reason I have been getting asked a lot recently if I would consider leaving Seattle after graduation to try to find a job elsewhere. I don’t know why this is coming up a lot right now, maybe because I am a year from my degree in Informatics, but it just makes me think about why I answer the same thing every time. I am always responding with “I want to stay in Seattle. I have traveled half way across the country once and I’d like to not do that again.”
When I came to school out here in Seattle I did not really know what to expect from things. I knew that I wanted to get away from the life that I lived back in Eden Prairie, but I had no idea what I was really getting myself into. Looking back I think that this was a good decision for myself. I don’t really think that I intended to push away my Minnesota past, but in a way I did and it has been tough. It is hard to maintain a relationship and friendships, for that matter, when you are far away like I am. But, coming out to Washington gave me a chance to “start over” (if one can even ever do this) again and meet new people that I might not have had the chance to meet back at home because of who I was.
I have been more than fortunate to meet all of the people that I have since I got to school here. Starting from the figlets freshman year to the iSchool crew of present, it has been something that I did not see coming. I will admit that some of my best friends are right here at UW and that is why I don’t think that I could leave. I am attached to all of them too much to want to leave and start over, again. It’s not that I think that I would not be able to do it again, make new relationships that is, but I just don’t want to. I am happy right now with the way things are and I don’t want to see it change. I do realize that people will graduate and maybe move away, but I don’t want to be one of them. I’ll stick around as long as I can, because I want to.