QotD: How I Ended Up Here

Why do you live where you live?
Submitted by memtony.

I was living in Portland, where I'd been for nearly eight years.  I was well past the seven-year mark at working for Intel.

One weekend I came down with strep throat with a vengeance, and wound up spending the entire next week in bed.  I was miserable and slept a ton, but apparently I also had a lot of time to think.

Around 11 a.m. on Friday I woke up and thought to myself, "Damn.  I have to go back to work on Monday.  I really don't want to do that."  About thirty seconds later, another thought cruised through my sleep-fogged brain-- "Portland really is a small town, isn't it?"

Yet another thirty seconds later, I said to myself, "Fuck it.  I'm moving to San Francisco."

I got out of bed, found a box, and packed up my aquarium books.

That was the first 60 seconds.  Three months later I'd quit my job, sold my condo, put everything I owned into storage, and was at the airport heading to Europe for the summer.  When I got back to the US, I went to San Francisco and looked for a place to live, and moved in.  After that I started looking for a job.

I haven't regretted it for a single moment.