YOUR SAY: LEAVING CALIFORNIA
Californians face high housing, tax, water and energy costs, threats of wildfires and earthquakes and a host of other challenges, leading many to consider moving away. We asked why you would or wouldn’t contemplate leaving California.
Staying put despite a lot of temptations
I have had some moments in my life when I thought about leaving San Diego, but fate intervened just in time. Orders from the Navy sent my enlisted husband, myself and our 1-month-old daughter here in 1967. Loving my home state of Kentucky, I was always sure in my mind that it would be a short three years until I could go home again. At the end of that enlistment and with another child, I found out my husband had no intention of leaving this wonderful place with the ocean, professional sports and, oh my gosh, very little humidity. Who would leave this paradise?
I had staved off my homesickness because I thought we would be moving home. How can staying here end the guilt of having the only two grandchildren, and not having any good answers to your mother and father that you are staying here because that is what your husband wants. Then, life went on. I began working at the San Diego County Office of Education, from which I retired 33 years later. The Navy guy got his degree from San Diego State University. We built a house with an ocean view and moved the family to North County. Then came the divorce and, again, the question, are you moving home now? No, I’m too entrenched in my career, the kids are too entrenched, one in college, the other a senior in high school.
Going through that time alone, without the comfort and warmth of loving parents and siblings close by was very hard, but I resisted going home one more time. Then, a remarriage complete with stepchildren sealed the deal. I’m staying.
But then, my daughter settled with my only grandchild in Oregon and my son was living in New Mexico. I thought we should move to Oregon where my daughter lived so I wouldn’t have that agonizing feeling of leaving her and, by then, my two grandchildren, over and over.
Just in time, fate intervened again. My son moved to San Diego, married the wonderful young woman who came with him and eventually I had two additional grandchildren, as well as my husband’s grandchildren. Sorry, mother and daddy, I guess I’m never moving back home.
Finally, retirement came. It would be expensive to stay here, but at last it felt like home. Family and grandchildren are certainly a big reason for staying, but in addition so are wonderful friends, political comfort and pride in a state where one can breathe and feel safe. My children love people, all people, their children are the kind of young people who love this Earth and will propel this country forward to being just, accepting and appreciative.
No, I will never leave this state. It certainly isn’t perfect, but it is and has become home. And, every time I am on Facebook with family and friends who have made their home elsewhere, I am proud of my decision that, at last, this state, this city is my home.