by C. R. Swanson
When I was 30, I wasn’t getting anywhere in life.
I was living in a single rented room, working a part-time job, barely keeping my life together.
Looking back to it now, I was surviving, but I wasn’t thriving and wasn’t making anything for myself.
So I moved over a thousand miles away, to live in Southern California.
I ended up in a community where the rent was cheap-ish, and jobs were plentiful.
At first I kept up my old bad habits, but when I was 31, I finally got a solid full-time job.
It wasn’t the best (convenience store cashier), but it enabled me to really feel like I was making some level of progress.
By the time I was 33, I was feeling stuck again.
Rent had shot through the roof, and the place I was living had limited options for me. So I moved again, this time to Phoenix, the capital and most populous city of Arizona.
And here…here I thrived.
I initially transferred with the convenience store chain I was working for, but after 9 months of living here, I got a job in technical support.
That kept a roof over my head and food in my stomach for almost five years.
Then the recession hit and I lost that job and had a hard time finding another one.
So I took shelter in academia for as long as I could, got a job working as a server for about two and half years, and eventually worked my way back into my current tech job.
So after all these years of effort, where I am now?
Now, I have a job I like at a company I like.
I have a stable, steady relationship with the man I love.
I have not just a roof over my head and food in my stomach, but quality food, and a good roof.
My schooling left me in debt, but I’m paying off that, plus all the other debt I’ve accumulated.
One step at a time.
I’m happy with who I am and where I’m at in life.
This wasn’t, as you can see, an overnight thing. But I worked at it.
I was unsatisfied at various points in my life, and would think, “What one major, important thing can I do, right now, that will improve this?”
And I did that. I did that repeatedly.
And now I’m where I am.
Some have asked me how I got to know that moving would change things for me.
Well, of course I didn’t know it would change things for the better.
But I knew that where I was wasn’t working out. I knew that if I wanted to change things, I had to…well, make a change.
A big one. Physically getting away from the situation you’re in will always make a difference, and hopefully a good one!
***
My name is C. R. Swanson.
I read a lot, I watch a lot of TV, and spend much time thinking about the world, my place in it, and how to improve both of those things.
