Pursuing dreams

[figmo]

A few months ago I'd heard from an old friend who used to run regular gatherings of single folks on the Net. Bob has since gotten married; he and his wife are happily living in Maine. Bob contacted the regulars from the ba.singles "boinks" he could think of and is organizing a get-together in November. Today I heard from him again with an update.

I was looking at his web page, and I've been reading about the trip he and his wife, Deb, did across the country on bicycle. Bob is older than I am, so I was especially impressed. This had been a lifelong dream of his, and he was able to talk Deb into doing it with him. I've been reading the travelog of their trip, and I've been really impressed. They did the trip with the intent of not just covering ground, but of seeing and experiencing the country.

Several other friends, some of whom are on LJ, have also gotten out of high tech and have pursued or are pursuing other dreams. I'm noticing that amongst the folks I hang with, a lot of us are doing the "daring" stuff only associated with much younger adults -- sweeping career changes, major trips, and so forth. I am glad I'm not the only one in this situation.

To all of you out there pursuing your dreams: Keep it up. Please. If someone decides you're not worth being around because you've left or are trying to leave the high tech industry, they're not worth being around. Your struggles, trials, and tribulations are an inspiration to the rest of us -- like me -- and I rarely get inspired by anything.

Comments

[slfisher.livejournal.com]

If you're keeping a list, you can sort of add me to it; I'm still in the high tech industry, but I also live in Idaho on an acre and am doing some small scale ag stuff -- only for myself and my daughter thus far, and I know I'll never make a living at it, but I may expand a bit -- plus I'm getting a master's in public administration and figure I'll be moving into that area at some point.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I've been curious: Why Idaho? I was really surprised to find out you'd moved there.

[slfisher.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's easy. My former husband's family lived there. So we moved to Idaho and promptly filed for divorce, leaving me in a state where I literally knew no one who wasn't related to him.

Actually, I like it here. There are seasons but they are reasonably temperate (at least for someone who's lived in both California and upstate New York) -- there's some snow but it rarely stays for more than a day, it doesn't often go below zero, there's at most a couple of weeks over 100 a year and it's a dry heat, and it's sunny a lot except when there's an inversion layer. We *rarely* get earthquakes and tornadoes; the biggest risk is probably fire and I'm fairly well protected against that, knock wood.

Real estate is cheap -- I bought a two-bedroom house on an acre (with two outbuildings and a ton of garden and fruit trees) for less than I paid for a two-bedroom condo with no parking and no garage in San Francisco almost fifteen years ago.

I get to live in a small town -- we're up to almost 10,000! -- but big city amenities are only twenty minutes away. True, they're not as plentiful or as high quality as San Francisco's, but I can do nearly everything here that I did there, just not as often. Plus we have the firemen's barbecues and the county fairs and 4H and all that stuff.

It's a great place to raise kids. There's lots of kids and family activities, a new elementary school will be built next door, and the high school is across the street.

It's an ag area -- I get great produce, everyone talks about their gardens, there are no limits on the kinds of livestock I have.

Granted, it's heavily Republican, but I've encountered very little hostility for my out Democratness. People in town tend to think of my political leanings as a charming eccentricity and I'm basically thought of as their pet Democrat.

It's easy to get involved and make change -- lots of people don't, towns and cities aren't very big, there are people to be convince (everybody pretty much believed the same thing in San Francisco), and even a small amount of effort and sophistication can achieve big results.

And, you know, I like living in an area where people stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance and pull over when a fire truck goes by.

[howeird]

Amazing. In all those years of boinks, I don't remember Bob ever mentioning bikes. Reading his travelogue, I kept being more and more amazed. Until I reached the part where he said they were able to transfer funds and monitor their investments over the Internet. Proving once again that it's a lot easier to follow your dream if you've got the cash. But on the other hand, kudos to him for earning the cash.

I'm also impressed that Ron achieved his dream of ditching high-tech to buy a macadamia farm in Hawaii, where he has now retired to. Word is he may make it to the Bob Boink.