Back in the PNW

A couple of days into September, I arrived back in the Pacific Northwest. It was raining the night I got here, which I thought was a fitting tribute to my defeated return to where I started a year and a half ago. I left Seattle on January 24th, 2019, with high hopes for new opportunities and chances in West Virginia near Washington, D.C. It didn’t quite work out that way. I learned a great deal about the country along the way, but right now, I want to talk about what it’s like being back here. The adage that “as much as everything changes, it also stays the same.” That is certainly true. Sound Transit is still a mess, and the progress of extended the light rail seems to move forward at a near glacial pace. 

The city is definitely rougher for the pandemic. The vibrancy of downtown has definitely gone away with so many things closed. I’ve moved right downtown because the apartment market here was very limited when I arrived. There wasn’t even many expensive places. I actually wanted to be on Tacoma but I couldn’t really find anything that was big enough for me and not super weird. There are a variety of people who are splitting up old houses and renting out rooms, especially to students. I arrived during when students were moving in but by the time I was seriously looking most of the students had already moved but there was still not much available.  I’ve had a chance to see the city first hand and it’s just not the same. I still love it but it has definitely changed. 

I’ve also noticed that the racial makeup of the city has changed. One of my local followers chuckled and told me that all the white people moved over to Bellevue. Based on my anecdotal driving around, it certainly appears to be that way. Somehow the city seems darker than in days past. It’s just an overall mood. Perhaps it is the pandemic, but that has been my observation. I’ve taken a few trips down to Tacoma, and gentrification is well underway there. Much of the old shops along South Tacoma Way are getting plowed under in favor of new buildings and new residential. 6th Ave has maintained more of its vibrancy, and many shops are still open, and the restaurants seem to be hanging on, at least for now. 

Most importantly, on a personal note, one of the things I’ve learned over the past 2 years is how important it is to be near friends. West Virginia was lonely because I had no friends, and because I’m not really a bar fly, I didn’t really have a chance to meet too many people. In fact, all the social occasions I went to in Shepherdstown resulted from hanging with my ex’s friends, and we spent a lot of time in bars. The alcohol was fairly cheap, which helped. I will admit that I didn’t make a huge effort but that I’m not a big bar person, and I’m not into outdoor activities that knocked many of the established social groups. It also varies on how much going out I can afford. Getting used to life in West Virginia was harder than moving to the UK for 2 months. Everything was different from grocery stores to fast food and even the road system. West Virginia is a tangled mess of two-lane roads. This was tough to handle when you had to drive 15-20 minutes to get anywhere. I lived between two towns, so getting anywhere involved a drive, and for whatever reason, I didn’t want to drive that much. I think I had gotten spoiled living in North Seattle, where everything was within a few minute’s drive at most. A few regional arterials would benefit the whole region of Maryland, West Virginia, and Northern Virginia. I definitely discovered the differences between the East and the West. Having to cross a state border to go to a donut shop blew my mind as a westerner where states go on for hours. They also think they have “mountains,” where I’m from, their mountains are called foothills. I will get deeper into that in another post when I compare the Eastern US to the West, but it changed. It is good to be home. It is good to be near friends, and it is good to be among familiar things. I never realized how much Seattle was home for me until I left. Exasperated by my search for a new home, I blurted out, “I just want to go back to Seattle, where I belonged.” 

And that’s what I did. 

I’m happy to be back. This is where I want to build a life. I’ve moved every 2 years for most of my adulthood, but I am hopeful that my next move will be my last for a long while. Here is where I belong, and here is where I will stay. I obviously can’t totally predict that, and as an artist, sometimes life comes at you fast, but I want to do everything that I can do to make sure that I can stay where my friends are nearby and build a life here that I truly enjoy. For too long, I have been willing to sacrifice anything and everything for my career, and now there are things that I’m not willing to give up. It is too hard to start over in a new place. I want to make sure that I can live a life that brings me joy and happiness, and I know that this is the perfect location for that. I’m happy to be back in the PNW.