Life After DMV...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can’t wait to leave this area. I’m from here, and we are counting down the days until our youngest is done with school and we can escape.

There are soooo many things I’m never going to miss about this area. The people, the weather, the traffic, the people, the taxes, the people, the cost of living, the people, the competitive drama, the people, the people, the people....

Can’t wait to move to America.

STFU with the “real America” vs “fake America” crap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was thinking yesterday about how DC is a trap. I’m sick of it here, tied of the hyper-competitive people and the exhausting political virtual signaling (I’m a lefty, I just don’t care about “winning” the DC game of “who’s the MOST progressive?”). People here are addicted to work and prestige and as a west coast transplant, it’s disturbing how much even mid-level office drones think their job is the most interesting thing about them. And even people with hobbies are weird about it. Again, just competitive in an almost dispassionate way. It’s exhausting and I can’t believe we are raising kids here.

But every time we talk about leaving, it’s impossible. DC is expensive but so are lots of places. The weather here sucks and yet is weirdly middle of the road. Once you’ve been here for over a decade, going somewhere much warmer or colder feels hard. I dislike the work culture here, but there are so many jobs and they pay well and the city is so resistant to downturn (knock on wood). Buying a home here is miserable but once you have one the idea of selling it and missing out on certain appreciation is unappealing. And so on.

It’s like I dislike DC but it’s too hard to leave.

DC isn’t even all that progressive. What are you talking about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are all in golden handcuffs.

+1

[Anonymous]

For a variety of reasons, north. I've told my wife for years that Arlington is as far into the deep south that I care to be.

[Anonymous]

I absolutely hope DD doesn’t decide to settle down here because then I’ll feel like I have to stay. I do NOT want to retire here, but at the very least, I’d want a summer home in Maine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For a variety of reasons, north. I've told my wife for years that Arlington is as far into the deep south that I care to be.

Same here! I won’t go any farther South because of politics and humidity.

[Anonymous]

DH has applied for a few GS-13/14s in another lower cost small city in the Midwest so we’re putting the house on the market as soon as something comes through. He’s a 14 now and checks all of the boxes so I think our chances are pretty good for moving by this summer. We never intended to stay here permanently after he retired from the military but it seemed like the easiest thing to do at the time. Job landed in his lap and it was one less transition for the kids and all that.

We’ll be able to buy a brand new 3000 sq ft house in a great school district for under $500k and his commute will be 30 mins door to door (my job has always been 100% remote). Life is just easier there.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in the Midwest. Have lived in the DC area (Maryland suburbs) for 12 years. I can say the grass is not always greener on the other side. It’s always going to be something.

[Anonymous]

The economic stability of the DMV keeps us here. That being said, it's a scary time to leave.

[Anonymous]

I met my husband in DC, and his job took us to the Midwest, then West, then we were forced, kicking and screaming back to DC. I really didn't want to go, and looking back, it wasn't our best years. We stayed five years before we went back out West again. We're now, many years later, in Florida, which people love to hate on here, but I've never been happier. I never would have guessed how much I like it in Florida. I work from home (still work the job I had in DC) so that's the issue for us - I get the economic stability of that DC job but don't have to live there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone? There’s a whole Life After California FB group about this, but it’s mostly conservatives and I don’t necessarily want to go somewhere conservative.

It's not mostly conservatives. California's politics are so progressive that most people here would also reject them. For example, the city of San Francisco is one giant school cluster and students are placed with no regard for proximity. That means a kindergartener may have a 50 minute commute by train and/or a lengthy walk through what has become a notoriously dangerous and unsanitary city. They also decriminalized nonviolent property crimes, so you can literally be mugged with no recourse, people can break into your house, and they can shoplift from stores. Homeless people can live in your doorway.

DMV people wouldn't stand for this and are hardly in a position to judge Californians for saying enough is enough. But, we don't have these problems in the DMV, which is why we are not experiencing an exodus like California.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone? There’s a whole Life After California FB group about this, but it’s mostly conservatives and I don’t necessarily want to go somewhere conservative.

It's not mostly conservatives. California's politics are so progressive that most people here would also reject them. For example, the city of San Francisco is one giant school cluster and students are placed with no regard for proximity. That means a kindergartener may have a 50 minute commute by train and/or a lengthy walk through what has become a notoriously dangerous and unsanitary city. They also decriminalized nonviolent property crimes, so you can literally be mugged with no recourse, people can break into your house, and they can shoplift from stores. Homeless people can live in your doorway.

DMV people wouldn't stand for this and are hardly in a position to judge Californians for saying enough is enough. But, we don't have these problems in the DMV, which is why we are not experiencing an exodus like California.

We don’t have these problems yet...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t wait to leave this area. I’m from here, and we are counting down the days until our youngest is done with school and we can escape.

There are soooo many things I’m never going to miss about this area. The people, the weather, the traffic, the people, the taxes, the people, the cost of living, the people, the competitive drama, the people, the people, the people....

Can’t wait to move to America.

STFU with the “real America” vs “fake America” crap.

You sound nice

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t wait to leave this area. I’m from here, and we are counting down the days until our youngest is done with school and we can escape.

There are soooo many things I’m never going to miss about this area. The people, the weather, the traffic, the people, the taxes, the people, the cost of living, the people, the competitive drama, the people, the people, the people....

Can’t wait to move to America.

STFU with the “real America” vs “fake America” crap.

You sound nice

However, promoting the "real America v. fake America" attitude is kind of how we've gotten to this truly rotten, divisive place we are in history. So the STFU poster may not have been super refined with their request not to propagate this divisiveness, but they are not off-base with their sentiment.

[Anonymous]

DC will be a state soon. That matters.