Let me tell you about a friend of mine. He grew up in LA and has honestly done really well for himself, he's a couple years younger than me and runs a the news organization for a TV station in Chicago. Before he started in his current job he was a specialist for one of the big networks traveling all over the world to all the big hot spots, Iraq, Afghanistan, Japan for the Fukushima nuclear disaster where he actually heard the reactor go. Considering the kid of jobs he's had it shouldn't be any surprise that he makes considerably more money than me. I don't know for sure but I'd guess double or nearly double anyway.
It got me thinking, some years ago I was offered the opportunity to move to LA and I turned it down. I wasn't ready to move that far away from my family and the life I had known. These days I might consider moving but we're totally locked into where we are. We owe more than our house is worth and Angie's business is doing well, it'd be a really big deal to leave. Even if we left now it would be a couple years before the money made it to the point where it'd really be worth all the hassle although by about the ten year point I think I'd end up considerably ahead. I suspect that by that time we could move back here and I'd be considerably ahead of where I'll be in ten years if we don't leave.
I remember my dad telling me that if he'd moved away from Maine he could have made a ton more money and had a lot more options. The thing I find funny about it now is that when he was talking about moving away he meant Massachusetts which is where I live now. I'm sure that I make more money now than I would have if I didn't move away but thats not why I did it.
I've been telling this story to people trying to work it up into a bit and I've been disappointed that people don't laugh when I say that he would have moved *all the way to Massachusetts* and then I have to explain that we're talking moving 400 miles where if I was going to LA it'd be 2500 miles. This of course ruins the joke. I need to figure out a way to explain it without actually explaining.
Anyway it all got me thinking that I really like my life. I like my little house, my ridiculous girl car (come on, a white A3 Jetta is totally a girl car), my dog, snowmobiles and such. I married the right woman whom I couldn't love more. I love going to camp, I love the travel that I get to do both for work and for pleasure. All in all I'm pretty much satisfied.
Are there things about my life I'd change? Sure, I'd like to lose some weight, get a new snowmobile, the house needs a new roof and I'd like to have a 2 car garage but really thats all window dressing, my fundamentals are good.
I don't know who said it but happiness is not about having what you want, its about wanting what you have. There is ALWAYS some other thing or some hot woman or job with some fancy title. While that stuff is cool and all I'm just not that excited about it. To the people who want to go out and chase that dream, rock on! I'll be here keeping the beer cold for you when you get back.
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