Neon Flashing Sign
By MJ Hogan
My story begins in State College, Pennsylvania, where
I had lived for 21 years since moving there for college (Penn State).
My life in State College was safe, comfortable, and rather easy.
I had a wonderful community of friends and a good job. I had
built strong relationships over the years within the community and loved my
family doctor, my car mechanic, my chiropractor, my hairdresser, my acupuncturist,
... Life was good, yet there was something missing. In the summer
of 2003, I made a decision to leave my job in September
and take the rest of the year to travel and spend time with myself away
from the comfort zone I had created in State College. I told
friends and coworkers of my plan to travel to "places I might move
to if I ever decided to leave central Pennsylvania" (not that I was
REALLY planning to leave.) My plan was to spend October in New England,
November in Colorado and December in the Pacific Northwest before heading
back to Pennsylvania for the holidays. My thought was that I would
go to each of these areas and explore and be open to any opportunities
that presented themselves to me. I was not going to look for a specific
job or with the intention of moving specifically to any one of these places.
As I shared my plan with folks over the month of August, I often
got the same response, "I think you should also look at Asheville,
North Carolina." At first I didn't pay much attention.
I knew nobody in North Carolina, I have never been to North Carolina and
I have certainly never considered living in North Carolina. It wasn't
just North Carloina, though, that I kept hearing, but specifically, Asheville.
It continued to come up over and over again, from friends to aquaintences
to perfect strangers - it seemed that everyone was telling me
I should go to Asheville. It got to the point that when people said, "you
know where else you should go?" I would say, "I know,
Asheville, North Carolina!" and they'd say, "yeah, that's exactly
where we were going to say." I know. I probably
heard it about 2 dozen times in a month. Clearly this wasn't a little
sign it was a neon-flashing billboard. Still, I was determined to
stick to my original plan and I decided to add in a stop in Asheville
in the first week of November on my way from Boston to Colorado.
I spent the month of October as planned exploring the states of New England.
It was wonderful. I could imagine myself living on the coast of
Maine or in the mountains of Vermont or New Hampshire, but not yet.
I still wanted to visit the other places on my itinerary. On October
30 a friend called from Pennsylvania to tell my about a musician friend
of hers who was touring in New England and she suggested that I try to
make it to one of his shows in the Boston area. She thought I would
really like his music and that we would hit it off and, oh, by the way
he's looking for an assistant. I went to his show on November
1 and met him afterwards. We talked for a couple of hours and
he told me about the job. I said it sounded interesting and asked
where he was based out of. He said, "Asheville, North Carolina."
I said, "Of course!" He asked if I would be willing to
come to Asheville to interview for the job and see the area and I said
sure since I was already planning to go there at the end of the week.
Well, I came, I interviewed, I explored and I loved it here. I never
made it to Colorado or the Pacific Northwest. A month later
he offered me a job and in January 2004 I moved to Asheville. The
job got me here , but I was, and still am, certain that there is another
reason that I was "called to Asheville." I am looking
forward to the possibilities!
It took a lot of courage for me to actually make the move. I knew
nobody within a 8 hour radius of Asheville and my job has me working
alone in a home office while my employer travels more than half of every
month. A little scary for me, coming from a place where I had had
such a stong community of friends. It took about 4 months for me
to start feeling a sense of community here and truly trust that this is
where I belong. I know I am home.