In five months....

...I will be living somewhere else.

The question is, where will I be living? Before I met Trevor, I was considering the Japanese Exchange Teaching Program, or possibly getting my "Literature for Teachers of English" MA at the University of Washington. However, in between, I've gotten closer to my family and friends in North Dakota, and I'm feeling very resistant to thought of leaving. I'm also very resistant to the thought of staying.

I know my mom would love to have me move home for the spring semester. I know it's tough to find a teaching job in January, so I know that might end up being my only option for the time being, no matter where I decide I want to live. If I stay in North Dakota, I'd like to be in Grand Forks or Bismarck. I have little desire to ever live in Fargo. It's a neat place, but I don't want to live there.

I would love to move to Atlanta, but I'm not really sure I'm ready to make the jump to a major metropolitan area right away. There are times when Grand Forks seems just a little too much like a big city to me. For example, on Sunday night, Martina McBride and Little Big Town played a concert at the Alerus Center. Two hours before the show began, traffic was backed up from the Alerus parking lot to Demers. I hate crap like that, even though it only happens once in a great while. Unfortunately, it's happening again tonight with the Nickleback concert. I spent my day working at the Comfort Inn, and I turned away probably 50+ people wanting rooms in town tonight. Of course, these event-related nuisances are also things I wouldn't even notice if I lived in Atlanta or Minneapolis. It's more routine there. You come to know what to avoid the night of a Braves game. Realistically, you'd be living in a suburb, and you'd probably stay in your suburb most of the time. Event traffic probably wouldn't stop me from getting to the nearest Target on a regular basis, which is currently the case when there are events at the Alerus Center.

Basically, what it boils down to is that I can see the pros and cons of any living situation. While this should be helpful, it's not. It means that it doesn't really help me narrow down the job search by location at all. I need to figure out where to start with the whole job search thing this fall, and it's going to be tough enough as it is. I'm student teaching, working another job on top of that, finishing up my thesis, and tying up all the other loose ends before I graduate. When am I going to have time for an intensive job hunt?

I think these frustrations are why European students take "gap years."