It has finally come to this. After 23 years of being in and out of school since high school, I am FINALLY graduating from collage. I was waiting for this day to happen for a long time, but everytime I came close to finishing up my courses for a collage degree, we had to move, or something happened to me and I couldnt finish up. It just doesnt seem like it was that long ago that I started collage in the first place. I still remember when I started right out of high school. This was in the days before internet was invented. We had to either write out or type our assignments on a typewriter. We did have computers, but they did very little. To save anything, you had to use these huge floppy disks which was easy to get damaged, and computer classes were few and far between.
That was 23 years ago. Now everything is done online and we have more sources than we ever did before.
But I figure now is about time to graduate from collage and to move on. I am not getting any younger and I need to start getting on with my life. I will soon be attending school at Bozeman, but not when I really wanted to start though. For a graduation present, I got an all expense paid trip to Billings and I really want to go. I am going there to visit the MSU-Billings campus because I just might transfer there and to look at properties. I am noticing the job market is a little better than it is here, and they are always hiring in Yellowstone Park which is only a few hours away from Billings.
I am not so sure what I will do for the future. That has drawn a blank. I have a lot of possibilities and I just have to decide what is best for me and my family. But I can assure you that by the time I graduate, Timmyfan would be back here on the coast. If it was up to me, she would stay here. I really dont want to take her to Billings with me, but I dont have a choice. Its either that or she lives on the street, and I cant do that not even to my worst enemy. If I could give her a tiny home on the ocean or a lot somewhere in the area, I would leave her here. If there was a way I could leave her here, I do it right away. But I ran out of ideas and I cant stay where there are no jobs.
This area relies very much on tourism as their main industry. And because of the bad economy, no one does much traveling anymore. The hotels dont get enough business and jobs become scarce. I think IMO, if I were to come back to this state, I think I would go back to Mount St. Helens. Most of the nearby communities are bigger towns (well, bigger than Ocean Shores anyway) and may have a better job market. And there is Mount St. Helens itself. I think the park offers employment and there may be something in it for me. But I think first of all, I would like to give Montana a try and maybe get a permanent job at Yellowstone. If it turns out to be no better than Ocean Shores, well....Mount St. Helens, here I come. Or even to Anacortes, now there is another place I dont mind moving to. But I am not sure of the job market there. Population wise, its only about the size of Aberdeen, and I have never really been there outside of the ferry docks. But it sounds like a cute little town and I have got to check it out. But right now, its an uncertain future, but its nice to dream about it. We will just have to wait and see what REALLY happens.
