Nineteen years ago, my mom traveled away from the small town in Oregon where I grew up, to come to Spokane, Washington and interview for a job as a teacher with Spokane Public Schools. For a while, the biggest impact on my three-year-old life of her trip was a plastic tote bag she brought back for me with sand and waves trapped inside.
In just a matter of months, though, we were packing up our small family and driving a U-Haul north into Washington. We spent the first week at the KOA Campground in the Valley, until my parents were able to find a home for rent on the lower South Hill.
Fast forward a couple of years (more like 15) and I was about to graduate from high school. I had decided to stay in Spokane, a city I had developed a very intense love/hate relationship with, to attend Gonzaga University, while all my best friends moved across the country with an "anywhere but here" mentality.
As a kid, Spokane was a great place to grow up, with lots of parks, city pools, four full seasons (lots of snow in the winter! sun in the summer!) and the feeling that you had everything available that you could ever want to do. As a high schooler, it became less so, with a lack of good shopping, things to do, or places to go on the weekend.
The four years I've spent at Gonzaga have allowed me to get to know the city I grew up in all over again. As an adult, discovering the vibrant downtown core with its decent bar scene, and experiencing a growth one couldn't even have dreamed of when I was growing up, Spokane has become a metropolitan area, places to go and things to discover.
So now, with just two months until college graduation and the beginning of the proverbial rest of my life, I have decided to extend my stay in Spokane. I have been lucky enough to meet an excellent guy who is pursuing another year of advanced education at the University, and I will find some kind of career while he finishes his Master's. This decision, although a tough one to make, has brought me a lot of satisfaction. I get another year to discover even more of Spokane? Excellent. This year will also come with its challenges, as I try to find a job in the limited market of a smaller metropolitan area, in an economy which has been lethargic at best. And as a young professional with a limited income and a list of student loans to start paying back, the funds will be a little tight - a welcome challenge which will force me to discover a more thrifty side of the Inland Northwest.
I welcome you to my journey, just as I have felt welcome in Spokane all these years.
