Outta D.C.: The Hunt Begins

So.

Here I am. Staring at my Google Reader.

Looking at jobs.

Out West.

Yep. Out West.

I am scared at the idea of job hunting again. My D.C. hunt sort of stalled, and part of it was because I really didn’t like the idea of just going to another Metro stop in D.C. I do like D.C., don’t get me wrong, but like Toronto, it’s come to this: I think I’d rather visit the place on occasion than continue to live here.

My husband, IP, is starting to feel the same way.

The idea of moving across the country is definitely scary and daunting, and I remember how frustrating it was to send jobs out into the ether of a city hundreds of miles away, but the idea of staying here indefinitely scares me more. One is something I desperately want; the other is something I desperately don’t want. Because I don’t fit in with D.C.: I’m not a workaholic, I don’t enjoy trekking from Maryland into D.C. on the weekends for touring and sightseeing, I’m losing interest in the politics of the place, and whatever lifeblood people have that allows them to happily work 100 hour weeks just doesn’t have a place in my bloodstream. I dislike my job, and honestly the idea of getting another job here, no matter how much I might like the work, is not uplifting at all—I’d still have to walk up to the Metro, ride the Metro, work in concert with the government (most likely), and do the same 9-5 gig in a city to whose charms I’ve grown immune.

Sorry, D.C.

Now, of course I know there’re no guarantees that we’ll be happier out West. IP lived there for a couple of years and, while the scenery was stunning, he was miserable. What makes it better this time around is that we’re a bit more set in our careers and, most importantly, we have each other. Together we can make informed and researched choices and, when research and information fails us, we can hold each others’ hand as we take the plunge. We are being pretty methodical about this, but we came to this conclusion long ago: D.C. is not a long-term place for us. It was a stopover, a place to develop our skills, a place to strengthen who we are as professionals in order to seek out situations in which we’re able to use our expertise successfully. But—big, big but—we always wanted to take those skills and expertise and transfer them somewhere else, a place that uses our knowledge well and understands that we have lives outside of the office. Will we get a better work-life balance? Hopefully; it’s what we seek and prioritize above anything else as our eyes turn West.

My current boss once said that, because we spend so much time together, we should treat each other like family. Except she doesn’t treat us like family, and I don’t expect her to do so—but I think it’s fair for me to expect to see my family on a regular basis without being made to feel guilty. Unfortunately, what this boss was trying to say was that the office should be treated like our family only by us—complete and utter dedication to nothing but her company mission. I beg to differ. I have complete and utter dedication to one thing and, with some work, to hopefully two soon: my family and my writing. Both occur outside of work. IP and I hope that we can find a place out West that will understand this better than our workplaces seem to at the moment, better than D.C. seems to as a whole.

In sum: I don’t thrive on my job or this town. A lot of people in this town do, and I say good for them. But it’s not what I want, what IP told me he wants, not what we thrive on at all, so we’re starting to look elsewhere. Somewhere where the sun shines a bit more, where there are peaks rising into the sky, where getting out of town and into nature is only a whim away. I don’t know how long it’ll take, but we want to act on our goal before it becomes something we just tell ourselves to make the D.C. workdays, the Metro delays, the soundbites a bit more bearable. I think we’re going to make this happen, and that’s why I’m looking at my Google Reader, hoping to find a few places that seem to fit and might like to have me.

I promise we’ll visit, D.C. And I promise we’ll remember to stand to the right.