Leaving a Piece of My Heart in Oregon

If I would have asked my 20-year-old self, I would have never in a million years thought that I would be moving to Oregon and living there for almost five years. Crazy how life happens like that huh? A series of events and decisions catapults you in directions in life that are sometimes favorable, and sometimes not, but in my case it was a perfect collision of events that led me to Portland. To give you the short version, Thomas and I were pretty new in our relationship and he had gotten the opportunity to move to Portland to continue his flight training. I was hired with my company in Orlando, but once I realized they had an office in Portland I decided to fly out there and interview since I knew long distance in a new relationship is never an ideal situation. Some might think it’s crazy to leave everything you know – family, friends, the home you’ve known all your life – to move to a place clear across the country for a new relationship and your first job out of college. It was the best decision of my life. So anyone out there feeling like they are on the verge of making a big move and nervous about the unknown, DO IT. If your initial gut feeling is positive and gives you excited butterflies, then you’re always going to wonder what if.

Getting to know Thomas, growing our relationship, exploring a beautiful unknown place together, and leaning on each other when everything we’ve known our whole lives was so distant, made our relationship and marriage that much stronger. On top of that, we made some of our best friends while living in Portland who I know will be in our lives forever.

We always knew Portland was temporary. No matter how much we loved it, the need to be closer to family was more important, so we knew our years there were numbered. As of two weeks, we are now living in Alpharetta, GA which is the cutest little town right outside of Atlanta where we can definitely see ourselves buying a home and starting a family. We are just a 45 minute flight to my fam in Florida and at least on the East Coast so we can get to Thomas’ family in Norway a lot easier. We are very excited about our new adventure and the next chapter in our book, but there is a little piece of my heart that was left in Oregon and so many things I’ll miss about our life there.

I’ll miss our little historic Portland apartment that had to be a hundred years old and was ugly and beautiful all at the same time. I’ll miss the big tree in front of our window changing colors with the seasons, and watching the snow gather on the branches in the winter. I’ll miss walking down the gorgeous cherry blossom lined streets in our neighborhood during Spring. I’ll miss my 5-minute drive to work every morning (thank you Atlanta traffic). I’ll miss the cozy little Italian restaurant on the corner that we walked to for handmade pasta, and the coffee/wine bar across the street, or the perfect slice one street over, and a million other incredible restaurants and bars in Portland (the ATL food scene has some big shoes to fill). I’ll miss Trader Joes’s being a stones throw away from our front door (I’m comforted in the fact that at least I’m walking distance to Publix now). I’ll miss how damn crazy Portland is – from it’s naked bike rides, to vegan strip clubs (whatever that means), to seeing a Darth Vader unicyclist casually on my morning commute. I’ll miss walking across that green pdx airport carpet and having that feeling of coming home to Portland.

But most of all, I’ll miss some of our very best friends that we’ve made. We are so lucky to live in a day and age that we have FaceTime, and I’m counting my lucky stars that I have a husband that flies for a living or else I would be spending way too much money on flights to go back and see them!

I am forever grateful for our time we spent in Portland. As cheesy as it sounds, I am so excited to take our children there someday and show them a place that helped shape me into who I am today.

(the first picture we ever took in Oregon…brb crying)