Leaving for Opportunity Can Mean Other Trade Offs
Name: Julie Martinez
Midwest Home: Cleveland, OH
New Home: Austin, TX
I was very happy in Cleveland with friends and family close by and I didn’t plan on leaving. However, two things happened that changed that. First: After 8 months of looking, I still hadn’t found a permanent full time position. Second: My Texas-born boyfriend became my fiancé and he found a job in Austin. Without a permanent position of my own in the Midwest, I didn’t have much of an argument for staying. In fact, I was able to find a job in Austin with little difficulty.
Is it better than the Midwest? No. If I had the same job in Cleveland or Ann Arbor I guarantee that I’d be happier. Here you are so isolated. It is hard to get used to. It takes a day’s drive just to get out of Texas. I worry about my son’s options for local universities. I worry about access to good health care as I get older. But it is more than just a comparison of which is better—the Midwest or Texas—things just make sense in the Midwest in a way I can’t explain. I guess because it’s home.
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