A Transplanted New Yorker in Colorado
I moved my family — husband B and daughters K and L — to Evergreen three years ago from the New York City suburb of Mamaroneck, in Westchester County. It was the dawn of the recession, and my husband had lost his job as CIO of a Manhattan Internet startup. We decided to use the job loss as an opportunity to relocate our family to a place that might work better for our daughters, who both have sensory issues. Perhaps living in a fast-moving, competitive cosmopolitan area wasn’t the best environment for them. Perhaps a few ponderosa pines and snow-covered mountains would calm their souls.
For B and me, avid outdoors people chronically frustrated by the necessity of riding our road bikes 10-15 miles through congestion and traffic lights just to find some semblance of an open road, the prospect of quiet mountain roads was enticing. So when I landed a job with a Denver nonprofit, we packed up our boxes, put the house on the market, said goodbye to our wonderful neighbors, and took a leap of faith.
So here we are, in Evergreen! I must confess that I still sorely, painfully miss New York City, and I think I always will. But Colorado has welcomed us with open arms in ways we didn’t even imagine.
Life is different. Is it better? Yes and no. In this blog, I will share the experiences and adventures of wrenching your entire being from the familiar, of plopping yourself down someplace new and trying to navigate a new course. Everybody should do it at least once in their lives, just to discover they can, indeed, land on their feet!
