It’s time for a change. Not a small change – like which route to take to work – a big change. I’m moving back to Florida next summer.
It all started when we had an emergency all-staff meeting at work last week. In a nutshell, as part of a long judiciary process, a judge granted the state’s motion to terminate their contract with our organization. Without this contract, our organization cannot survive. I don’t have a time frame to base anything on yet, but gut feeling and conversations with those in the know put the official lights out date sometime in the summer of next year.
I sat down and had long conversations with myself as to what I would do when I no longer have an office to go to. I ran through the scenario of running my own consulting firm and shot it down. I’m not networked enough in the area to feel good about jumping in feet first like that. In previous gigs, my best jobs have been referrals from other consultants that got in too far over their heads. I won’t have that luxury here. I’ve also noticed the area is generally low-tech on average.
I thought about contacting a recruiting firm, much like I did when I found my current position and having them do the dirty work to find me another position. This one makes the most sense, and although my position should pull a strong income – the positions just aren’t here in Memphis. I’m driving 42 miles one way to get to work right now. I’d love to find a position closer to work, but there are none. Even if there were positions available, my pay rate would be slashed to 1/3 of the amount my skills should fetch. This is looking worse than doing consulting. I can charge a lot more per hour for consulting than I could get in a locally filled position.
I thought about a different field altogether. A full time Law Enforcement Officer gets crap pay. I’d love to go full time behind the badge, but I couldn’t do it for the pay. I’ll stick to my on-call status with no pay.
I then thought about where I’m at. What is here? What makes me love the area. Why do I want to stay here?
That’s when it dawned on me – There’s nothing about Memphis that I particularly love. Granted, I’ve got friends here who I’ll miss and I’m sure we’ll keep in touch – but what if they weren’t here? I don’t belong here.
I see and hear people talk about how they love Memphis, they’ve left Memphis only to come back a few years later, etc. Today, for example, Twitter was full of people hammering out the #ilovememphis hashtag and why they loved it.
One that cracked me up was: #ilovememphis but now that I’ve gotten sucked back into Dexter I’m not sure I’m going out on the town tonight.
And that pretty much sums it up. I really and truly don’t know more than a half dozen people in the Memphis area outside of work. I talk to several more, but actually hang out and do stuff people – just a few. I’ve tried to enjoy Memphis and let it take it’s hold on me so I could get tangled up in it’s magic – but the magic just isn’t there.
Off to Florida!
I tossed around the idea of heading out west – which I really want to do. I’m just afraid I’ll run into the same thing with Memphis. I fear I won’t love it.
Florida, on the other hand, I love. I grew up there. I don’t think I’ll go back to Pensacola. I love Pensacola, but I want to live somewhere different. I’ve got a friend who lives in Naples. I visited him a few years ago, but Naples is so full of CASH MONEY that the pavement smelled like the US Mint. Yeah, you could make money there, but be prepared to shell it out big time in the process.
Jacksonville was another option, but, like Memphis, it never really grabbed me.
Gainesville though… that’s a different story! I’ve got some RX-7 buddies that live in Gainesville that I’ve known for close to a decade, I’ve got a couple of high school buddies that live there now and it’s a college town. It’s also a couple of hours away from watching the shuttle launch, watching the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, visiting the Everglades, you name it. I’m taking 10 days off in a week or so to make a trip to Naples, through Miami, up the east coast of Florida and a few days in Gainesville.
I can’t wait to get back to the humidity, alligators and palm trees. They are my love for Florida the way Beale Street, Elvis and the Mississippi River are for Memphis.
Off to Florida!
