Before we left for Grandma’s for the holidays, Josh was offered a job in San Diego.
Pros:
– It sounds like an awesome job. The guy said the retention rate is 99% and it’s a big company. Josh’ll be able to move around within the company to work on pretty much whatever he wants, so that eliminates the bore of the normal 9-5 (or in this case 7-4 (with a half an hour lunch break and every other Friday off).
– Oh, and did I mention that I’m pretty sure every office in the building has an ocean view? It’s right out there on a peninsula. Amazing. The lab where he works right now doesn’t even have windows.
– San Diego has no snow. And it has beaches. And no snow.
– With weather like that, I would have no excuse for that lack of exercise I currently enjoy.
– It’s a job. With money. More money than we’re making right now. More than six times what we’re making right now. Which is a testament to how little we’re making right now as opposed to how much the job is offering. But if Josh waited and reapplied when he was done with his doctorate, it would be $20k more. Which brings us to the…
Cons:
– Houses in San Diego cost oodles and oddles of da moneyz.
– San Diego is not the Midwest. And I’m a Midwestern girl through and through. I make conversation with strangers in line with me at the grocery store and I hear they don’t do that on the West coast. They’re gonna think I’m crazy.
– And as much as I like the temperature and the beaches of San Diego, I would miss the grass. The love of the lush greenery of Illinois and Indiana is embedded so deep within me that the tans and browns of San Diego simply dehydrate me.
– All our family is in the Midwest. And we are in a kind of central location. We see a lot of grandparents who are passing through on their way to other places/family. San Diego would not be on the way to anywhere except Australia. Although now we have family there, too! {Waves to Australia Dave. HI AUSTRALIA DAVE!} (He asked Aunt Sassa to marry him on New Years and SHE SAID YES!)
– If he took a job right now, he’d quit school for good. Which is sad, especially as he finally passed the Qualifying Exam this year. But he is not interested in doing school while working 40 hours. He knows his family life would suffer and that’s just not acceptable to him. Which brings us to a possible third option:
He applied for something called a SMART Scholarship. (Is it an acronym? Possibly? Or maybe it’s just for smart people?) If accepted, he would get paid to be in school, and have his schooling paid for. And the pay would be three times what we’re making right now.
It’s a government defense-type program where he would need to find a government defense-type company to fund him, and then he would work at that company every summer until he graduated (which would have to be in 2012 – he has a deadline). Then he would have to work for that company, I believe a year for every year they funded his schooling (so, two years).
And, while filling out the scholarship paperwork, he saw that this San Diego company (also a government defense-type place) was on the list.
So, best case scenario, right now, looks like this:
He gets the SMART scholarship and the San Diego company funds him. He then gets to finish his PhD without worrying about finding a job or providing for his family. Every summer, we’d all move out to San Diego and get great tans. Then, in 2012, we move to San Diego, and with the extra PhD bonus money the company would put in his salary, we might even be able to afford a nice sized house that isn’t an hour away from where he’d work.
So that’s what we’re praying for. Well, technically, we’re praying that God’s will be done. But then we add this teeny tidbit on how it’d be REAL NICE, Lord, if this would happen to be Your will. 😀
So now you know!
(Let me know, Josh, if I messed any of the details up. I do that sometimes.)
(This just in: Josh just read the post and declared it the bonifide truth. Doesn’t it feel great to not be misinformed?)
Good luck! I hope it all works out for you in the best case scenario – because it sounds really great. Except, as a midwesterner myself, I’d be scared to move to CA, even with the thought of no snow and no temps below 0 LOL!
.-= Brandie´s last blog ..2009 Round-up =-.
I’d be scared to move to San Diego. it’s way too far from North Carolina. although maybe we’ll just move to San Diego too. that would be fine.
.-= Jes´s last blog ..Crafts! =-.
SMART funding is fantastic. I know some people on the program, and they love it. I’ve toyed with applying for it myself, but I don’t think I will.
It’s funny that you think San Diego is brown. I grew up in Arizona and always thought San Diego was amazingly green. I guess it’s all a matter of perspective.
Good luck!
Good luck – This sounds like a very hard decision but all in all you’ve got some good options on your hands;) Did he visit San Diego yet?
I grew up in Orange County, CA and lived in San Diego for 6 years during my 20’s. It’s a beautiful city with lot’s to do and the ocean is oh so lovely! But there are SO many drawbacks! The traffic, the smog, the cost of living, the materialism, the lack of nature……we may not always live in North Carolina but we’ll never move back to California! (and ALL of my family still lives there!) I watch so many of my friends who still live there struggle to make ends meet, struggle to make time for their families while commuting and being forced to have duel incomes and have multiple jobs. We’ve found that it’s a better life for us in NC and that we’re more able to live our lives the way we want. But, if we had a million dollars we would for sure buy a vacation home on Coronado island…..although a million would probably buy us a shack! lol You have a lot of decisions to make in the future and I wish you the best of luck! :o)
.-= Gina´s last blog ..goodbye pull ups =-.
Good luck! There’s certainly a lot to think about. Even if you did move to California, it’s not like you’ll have to be there the rest of your life if you don’t want. But hey, you may just like it!
As for us, we’ve got our eyes back on the Midwest. Pittsburgh is just too far from our families. Hopefully that’ll pan out within the next year or so.
.-= Kacie´s last blog ..2010 money hopes =-.
Good luck! I pray the Lord lead y’all where He wants you to be … and gives you peace about it.
9 months ago, we moved from Vermont to Wyoming. ALL of our family is on the east coast. We didn’t know anyone out here. BUT, it’s where the Lord wanted us to be …. and we had a peace about it. It’s turned out to be a VERY good thing for us!!
.-= Brandy´s last blog ..Wordless Wednesday 1 =-.
It’s always hard to make these kinds of decisions. I’ve visited San Diego and it’s a beautiful city, however you couldn’t pay me any amount of money to actually live there. California is California and nothing will change that. I hope you and Josh are able to make a decision you feel right with and one you feel is God-honoring.
Oh, I just have to say, I’m a midwest girl who got transplanted to 2 hrs from San Diego in Cali, and the Californians really are not that rude. LOL. I’ve had conversations with people in the grocery line too. I’ve determined that difference is that Californians are just in a hurry and are fast people in general. Gotta beat rush hour, etc.
And two more cons for your list: traffic, and earthquakes. {Well, traffic out here can be horrendous, especially in LA. But not sure how it compares with, say, Chicago traffic. I lived in small-town-midwest before moving to Cali, so the traffic was a huge adjustment factor.}
I don’t like California THAT much though. We are moving in 2 wks and I will be happy. I just came out here to be near my boyfriend, now husband. 🙂 And I hope we never move back to brown, ugly SoCal. {We’ve made great friends here and have had nice times, but it’s ugly and crowded. I’ll miss our friends, Ikea, and Trader Joe’s the most.}
.-= Joelle´s last blog ..Praline Pumpkin Pie =-.
Hi, I found your blog while researching Hib vaccine; thanks for the info. As for you moving to CA, I grew up in San Diego, and there’s a lot to love here; you’re right about the housing prices of course, but there’s no need to buy right away. Renting is a good option for now, and prices will continue to go down here over the next year or two. There are a lot of good churches here as well.
I’m a CA of midwestern stock. My parents are both Minnesota born and moved west in 67. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, but spent the summers in MN. Hubby and I have lived in CA and in the midwest and now have been back in CA (in San Diego) for 4 years. We love it and would never want to move away again.
People are very down to earth in San Diego and you can have plenty of convos with total strangers and it’ll be quite all right.
We have six kids and people (total strangers of all walks of life that we meet in public places) are more encouraging and complimentary about our family size than folks ever were in Kansas. Folks here love that we have so many kids.
You’ll do great!
(We’ve been renting for the last 4 years waiting for the drop to be complete. Don’t be in a hurry to buy. We haven’t landed on the bottom yet. 😉
That would be “a CA girl” not a CA. Geez.