What to do?

Look anywhere on the internet and you will find people who continue to say that "when one door closes, another opens", or that you struggle through the hard times to get to something better in your life.  I don't believe any of that.  Life is what you make of it, and how hard you work for what you want.  It isn't about getting what is coming to you, or what you believe you are owed for your struggle.  That is just entitlement, and it is rampant in society these days.  I don't believe that because I have a college education that jobs need to be thrown at me, and I will work at McDonald's if I have to to get by (though apparently they don't want someone with as much education as I have, I tried).

This brings me to the monkey wrench that hit my life.  I finished my first degree and went to work for a biopharmceutical company doing pretty advanced organic chemistry (got lucky with this job.  I was already working there, so it was a promotion).  I worked in that position for over three years.  As stressful as the work was most of the time, I liked what I did.  I loved the challenge, the need to continue learning, and the opportunities it afforded me (not so much some of the people or politics, but that happens).  And honestly, I was damn good at what I did...and then I got laid off.  I was confident in my skills, my education, and my ability to get another job so I wasn't worried.  Then my unemployment ran out.  Then the emergency unemployment from the federal government ran out.  It was a situation that I had not planned for, the overall job market.  It sucked so bad that I was getting passed up for people who were more educated and more experienced than I was, but I continued on the path.  People sometimes think that I am lying when I talk about my time being unemployed, how hard I actually worked to get a new job.  I would submit anywhere from 10 to 20 applications a week.  I tried to stay in my state for the first few months, and realized that was not getting me anywhere, so I expanded.  Finally, after being unemployed for over 1.5 years I was offered a job.  A wonderful job at that.  New company, new technology to work with, new learning that I can do, and a wonderful possibility for future career advancement.  The problem...it was on the other side of the country, 2700 miles away from home.

And what did I do?  I accepted the offer.  Why would I decline something this perfect just because it is not geographically convenient?  So I set a start date, and started preparing.  In a month I set up all of my travel plans and prepared everything that was coming with me, except my other half.  Yeah, this is where it gets even more difficult.  My long-term Girlfriend was not moving with me.  When I say long-term Girlfriend, we have been together for over 5 years, longer than some people have actually been married.  Why isn't she joining me?  She has things left to do in Oregon, obligations that she could not leave for a couple of years.  So she is staying in our home, with our animals, and I will live across the country to Alabama.  Again, not how I wanted things to go, but it's not something I can afford to turn down because it is inconvenient.

I know that I am making it sound like it was not a difficult decision, but trust me, it was.  I moved 1000 miles away from my family when I went to college (from California to Oregon) and that was a hard decision.  So believe me when I say this was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make in my life.  I didn't want to leave her, but this is the best option for now.  It gets me back to work, and we can keep our house (because we were getting to the point of losing it).

So enough back story, this is about the interim part of my life.  Travelling across the country, and living away from my love, away from my home, and away from everything I have known.  And pictures, there will be pictures sometimes.