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Paul Turner: Finding a new ‘You’ on vacation
They say travel is broadening.
But what does that actually mean?
I’ll tell you. It means that sometime in the course of summer vacation season a few of us are going to find ourselves far from Spokane and having this thought about a city we’re visiting: “You know, I could live here.”
It’s the most natural thing in the world. Having that thought does not necessarily mean you are tired of Spokane. It might just mean that when you imagine your life in some distant burg, it doesn’t look half bad.
Isn’t that what vacations are for? To refresh your outlook and get you thinking about your life in new and different ways?
Of course, daydreaming about inventing a new life in a new place is one thing. Actually pulling up stakes and moving there is another.
When you are on vacation, it’s pretty easy to say “I could live here.”
Liberated from the grind of your day-to-day routine, it’s a breeze to imagine a new and improved you. Which, let’s face it, can be a bit easier when you aren’t having to go to work every day or yell at the neighbor’s barking dog every night.
When you picture yourself transplanted to new surroundings, the temptation is to visualize a more stylish life, a more elegant version of you.
Reinventing yourself can be a challenge in Spokane. But maybe it would finally happen if you were in Sacramento or Asheville, North Carolina.
And let’s face it, this whole process can be aided and abetted by occasional bouts of Spokane fatigue.
It’s OK to admit. It doesn’t make you disloyal. Sometimes life in Spokane can feel like being stuck in an endless loop tape of the same old calendar of events, the same old whatever fests and the same old letters to the editor.
That’s undoubtedly true pretty much everywhere. But when you are on vacation, life elsewhere has a tendency to seem shiny and new. Or at least it can.
Then you start thinking about what moving would really require. In addition to matters of employment and income, “I could live here” invites a host of other considerations.
You would have to find a new dentist. You would have to get lined up with new medical specialists. You would have to find someone new to cut your hair. You would have to find a new accountant.
The list goes on and on.
All of those things can be accomplished, of course. People do it every day. But what if kids and new schools are part of the picture? Or a spouse’s search for a job? Leaving old friends? Leaving extended family?
The new city’s climate might seem ideal while you are visiting. But have you talked to people about what it’s like the rest of the year?
Maybe all the answers to questions about housing, crime and traffic are encouraging. Perhaps not, though.
Anyway, it’s worth remembering that while you are experiencing your own round of “I could live here” speculation, someone visiting Spokane might be going through the same thing.
You know, because Spokane can seem like Snugsville to people who drive an hour and a half to work back home where they live. Many of our neighborhoods can seem pretty sweet to those accustomed to an altogether different (more expensive) real estate market. Getting to outdoor recreation doesn’t require an all-day trek. And if you visit us on a good day, you can encounter a mood-lifting succession of friendly strangers.
To be sure, part of this is The Grass is Always Greener syndrome. When you are on vacation, you don’t tend to associate the city you are visiting with emotionally unstable bosses, noisy neighbors and wearisome local politicians.
All that would be in your theoretical future, no doubt, if you moved. Like encountering lying panhandlers and people breaking into your car.
But when you are deep in vacation mindset, it’s easy to focus instead on visions of being in a new city and making magically smart career decisions, being at your perfect weight/fitness level, dressing more stylishly and gracefully embracing a having-it-all lifestyle.
Or at least enjoying a change of scenery.
But you know what usually happens to that “I could live here” mulling?
We come home.
And we’re reminded, not for the first time, that we could be pretty much be whoever we aspire to be right here.
The only thing stopping us is, well, it’s not Spokane.