Flee To Philly

So far, 2007 has been a year of big changes for our family. But there is no doubt that the biggest change has been the decision to leave metropolitan Detroit and relocate to the Philadelphia area in early February.

Leaving Michigan was a difficult decision to make. I had been a resident of the Great Lakes State for nearly 12 years, and Jena had lived there for seven (plenty of time to get accustomed to winter driving). We had our courtship there, got engaged there, and got married there. We put down roots in Oakland County - we bought our first house in Royal Oak, joined a great church in Ferndale, and both worked in Pontiac. We had friendly neighbors that we cared about. Both of our boys were born at Beaumont Hospital. Jena had won several state journalism awards. We had travelled all over the state (some of our favorite places were Mackinac Island, Frankenmuth, Silver Lake, Point Aux Barques, and Traverse City). And although we had no family in Michigan, we had made many good friends in the state over the years. It was very hard to leave and start over.

But, the economy in Detroit was terrible in late 2006. I had lost my job in September and was struggling to find another one. In mid-December, a friend passed along the information that a software company in suburban Philadelphia was hiring. A few weeks (and three interviews) later, that company offered me a job at a very generous salary. It was hard to imagine another company in the Detroit area offering me the same amount of money. There was a lot of uncertainty at the time about the future of the economy in Detroit. Ford, GM and Chrysler were all having problems. Even the newspaper where Jena was working was laying off people left and right. Many companies were going out of business. The news was full of stories of people leaving for other cities (although Philadelphia was not usually mentioned as a destination). And the metro Detroit area was leading the nation in foreclosures. We came to the conclusion that although it would be hard to leave Michigan, maybe it was the right move.

In January, we put our Royal Oak house on the market. We then drove out to Philadelphia to look for an apartment. The quest for the perfect apartment there is worthy of a separate blog post, which I will write in the next few days.

Natën e mirë,
Charlie =)