I LOVE this city!
I moved to California in 1990 – after the big Loma Prieta earthquake shook this whole region. Initially, I came out here to work for only 6-8 weeks. I was asked to help out in the San Jose office of the company I worked for.
When I left my boss in Tampa, his parting words were, “go out there, have fun, but don’t call me to tell me you’re moving”. He was a great boss giving me that opportunity, and secretly I think he knew I’d end up staying. After 6 weeks, the manager of the San Jose office asked me if I’d like to stay and that they’d pay to move me here if I would.
That left me with 2 very important phone calls to make. The first to my parents and the second to my boss. The first word my mother said after I told her about the offer was “fantastic”. Phew, let me tell you, that made the second call a lot easier. Of course, I had to put up with a lot of teasing from my boss and other officemates in Tampa when I returned to pack up my cubicle – but it was worth it for the going-away party they threw me.
Tampa is beautiful! I was very happy in Tampa. I went to college there, made lifelong friends there and fully enjoyed life in that incredible bayside city. If I had to live in Florida again, I would certainly think of Tampa as my first choice.
I was very nervous about the move. Before my trip out west, I’d never been more than a few hours from the Atlantic Coast. Wasn’t I simply moving from one bay area to another? It turns out, the first six months away from home were anything but simple, but that’s another story for another time.
When it came down to it, how could I not move here? How could I not take this opportunity when while I had worked hard during the week, on my initial stay, every weekend I drove far and wide in my rental car to see as much as I could see.
What sites did I see!!! I would drive South to Monterey and Carmel, North to San Francisco and Marin, West to Santa Cruz and up the coast to Half Moon Bay. The scenery everywhere simply awed me. 20 years later, it still does.
(Years later, as it turns out, my boss from Tampa moved to California also)
