Jun 29 2009
What a month!
In mid-May I quit my job as a project manager and it felt great and scary at the same time. I had enough of working with tech and clients that didn’t always understand what would work best for their sites. I also felt the pressure of unrealistic expectations mounting and it was affecting my personal life negatively. At the end of April I had spent a week upstate with my college friends and we all talked about our jobs, life, and everything and it made me realize I needed to make a change and eliminate some of the toxic things in my life. One of them being the job. It’s not that I don’t like being a project manager but the industry makes a huge difference. When I was at another company and our clients were diverse – musicians, artists, accountants, etc – the day was more enjoyable and most were more agreeable to their designs, tech used, and timelines. They seemed to let us do what we knew best and listened to our suggestions and solutions with an open mind. I also didn’t have to hide who I was – my tattoos, piercings, and way of dress wasn’t an issue. So I was overall happier except for the last few months when money went downhill and things got tense. My boss had become impossible to work with and was losing his temper everyday at work which made me want to hide and run away. He was almost scary to be around. So I had gone freelance and it was great. I made more money, learned a bunch of new things and improved my skill set but with a price of losing a sense of self or rather, finding more about me than I knew and realizing where my passion lies to a greater extent than I had always thought.
Anyway, Jen and I have been unemployed and talking about places to move and what we will do. Recently we went to Portland Oregon. We had been looking at cheaper cities and more diverse people – Portland came up as one of the top cities to live if you’re LGBT. In June we went and had a great time – we lucked out and was there during Pride week. The people are nicer, the pace is slower, the city is smaller and easy to navigate and the number of parks was really refreshing. The vibe seemed calmer overall – and we liked being surrounded by so much nature and also being in a concrete jungle. There were wild roses growing here and there, lots of dogs, and people who just had an more “open-minded” sort of view. This isn’t to say that it’s a utopia but I didn’t get stared at like I do on the train in NYC when someone sees my tattoos. Sometimes the look here is one of disgust or shock and sometimes I also get stared at for being asian and looking so alternative. In Portland I didn’t notice anyone looking at me or staring… at least not in that manner. It was as if they have seen enough alternative kids around that I wasn’t anything that stood out and I never felt out of place. Like I could walk into a Banana Republic and not feel “too poor” or out of place. Also, the coffee at Stumptown was awesome and the food carts downtown that serve the lunch crowd were great and had more selections that I’ve seen down around Wall Street.
So Jen and I have decided we are going to move to Portland and give it a shot – I have a friend from college who lives there and we met a few of the twitter people… and I finally met my friend Sean who I have known for years via various social networks and im sessions. We wouldn’t be totally alone in navigating that place and would have some people to meet for coffee or lunch or outings so that is comforting.
Here’s a few pics: (the rest are on my flickr and can be seen on the image page of this site
