When I drove  by this billboard near the Mercer St. off ramp in downtown Seattle, I just cracked up.  Whomever writes the ad copy for MegaMillions has a sense of humor.  I’ll be attending my high school reunion a little later this year. This billboard echoes the sentiment many feel when revisiting their “youth”. Do you look forward to a reunion?  Do you feel successful?  It gives one pause and provokes one to reassess.

A step back gives me time to think about these things.  How did I end up here ***ty years after high school? “Here” is a figurative and literal expression, of course. 

Life can take interesting and surprising turns.  As a born and bred east coaster, Connecticut to be exact, never did I think I would live on the west coast.  I now have lived here longer than I’ve lived anywhere else.  College in Massachusetts led me to Boston for a number of years and work as a teacher in a suburban middle school.  It was fun, an interesting challenge. 

From there I earned a master’s degree in counseling and moved into a guidance counselor position in the same middle school where I had taught.  Looking back, teaching was far more fun and creative than counseling in a public school.  The stories you hear about kids with peer problems are usually a result of family problems.  If the family was not willing to get help, my job would be akin to putting a band-aid on a surgical wound, not very effective.

The Seattle/Eastside was a 2-3 year move, 22 years ago!  We came to the eastside for the same reasons people have been coming for the last two decades and will continue to come, there’s a plethora of high-tech jobs on the eastside.  The economy, relative to the rest of the country, is strong, the surroundings are just beautiful, the temperatures are mild year round. There’s great culture and beauty surrounding us. 

My high school friends will ask me how I’m doing and what it’s like to live in Seattle. Here’s what I’ll tell them:

My personal life is strong, but I’ve weathered some difficult times in the past and am lucky to be in the place I’m at now. The late 80′s with moving to a new city, new part of the country, new marriage, new career, and building new friendships was a challenge. The year 1989 was particularly difficult because of a very serious car accident.  Another tough one was 1994, with believe it or not,  a personal loss in real estate because of a sewer line (but that’s another very long “messy” story).  However, the tougher times, both personally and economically, help me to appreciate what’s here in Seattle, the Eastside, and where I am in my personal life.

Life has its ups and downs for a country, city,  and for an individual.  Seattle is going great guns, relatively speaking, whereas there’s much more of a struggle back in New England these days.  When I left Boston in the late 80′s, I left a booming place and came out here to a city that was just waking up.  When I bought my first home here in 1986, real estate was just coming out of the doldrums in Seattle and not expected to do much.  Home prices were much more affordable then when compared to the Boston area. Boston, on the other hand, is having a tougher time in today’s market than we are here in Seattle.  We have a strong economy in the Seattle area and there are jobs.   Seattle is weathering the downturn in real estate and the economy far better than most of the country.

No one gets out of this life without going through a series of ups and downs.  Some of us have more than our share of the good or the bad, some have a lot less.  That’s life.  I understand how hard it is to see the light at the end of the tunnel when things are down.  But when things are bad, we tend to forget they can change vastly in a few years.  Some of the change can be due to luck, some can be due to hard work, and some is out of our control.

 I will also say:

I love that I own a winter coat which I may wear 3 times a winter. 

I love the snow on the mountains that is rarely in my backyard.

I love the mountains and the lakes. 

I love the sensibility of the Seattle/Eastside, where environmental concerns are becoming more and more important.  

But most of all, I love that it’s less humid here than in New England, so my hair doesn’t frizz as much.

And yes, I will tell them I didn’t win the Megamillions, but I’m still glad I’ll be at the reunion.