{"id":171,"date":"2013-05-24T08:32:24","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T15:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.slowbloom.com\/blog\/?p=171"},"modified":"2013-05-24T08:32:24","modified_gmt":"2013-05-24T15:32:24","slug":"it-was-20-years-ago-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slowbloom.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/it-was-20-years-ago-today\/","title":{"rendered":"It was 20 years ago today \u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/jillbertini\/6954513586\/\" title=\"Space Needle plus mountains by jillbertini, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7139\/6954513586_7cc3f76c5d_n.jpg\" width=\"320\" height=\"212\" alt=\"Space Needle plus mountains\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Okay, it might not have ACTUALLY been this date, but it was 20 years ago that I was preparing to graduate from Oberlin College. I had decided in my senior year that I wanted to move to Seattle, based on having spent a single day in this fine city. But other than that, I had done nothing. I had no job, no place to stay, and knew virtually no one. Not only that, but I didn&#8217;t even have a way to get there. I had a plane ticket to return to Florida.<\/p>\n<p>A few days before graduation, a friend of mine approached me. She said, &#8220;I&#8217;m driving out to Seattle to play in a steel drum band for the summer. We have room in the car. Do you want to come?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I thought about it for a moment and consulted with my parents, who were there for the graduation. My dad said, &#8220;You can always come back home, if it doesn&#8217;t work out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I said, &#8220;Dad, I don&#8217;t want you to take this the wrong way, but I&#8217;d rather go slime fish in Alaska than move back to Florida.&#8221; We all laughed, I packed up a duffle bag and hopped in the car to drive West. <\/p>\n<p>I met people who helped me, I found a place to live, I managed to get some work and I met the love of my life. I&#8217;ve made so many friends and have always always always since the day I moved here felt that this is where I belong.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/button100x23.png\" style=\"border:0px; width:100; height: 23; \" alt=\"Share Button\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Reddit\",\"Print\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"It%20was%2020%20years%20ago%20today%20%E2%80%A6\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Okay, it might not have ACTUALLY been this date, but it was 20 years ago that I was preparing to graduate from Oberlin College. I had decided in my senior year that I wanted to move to Seattle, based on having spent a single day in this fine city. But other than that, I had [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/button100x23.png\" style=\"border:0px; width:100; height: 23; \" alt=\"Share Button\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Reddit\",\"Print\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"It%20was%2020%20years%20ago%20today%20%E2%80%A6\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,36],"tags":[55,53,30],"class_list":["post-171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-slowbloom","category-travel-2","tag-oberlin","tag-seattle","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slowbloom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slowbloom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slowbloom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slowbloom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slowbloom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.slowbloom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174,"href":"https:\/\/www.slowbloom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171\/revisions\/174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slowbloom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slowbloom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slowbloom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}