Home again, home again. Jiggity jog.
Over the last 6 months, we’ve made and remade some big decisions on jobs, school, and where we live. We’ve been all over the map (literally). So, if you have found yourself recently asking “What the what? The Habbens are moving back to Salt Lake from Logan? I thought they were moving to Maryland or something like that!” or something similar, then this blog post is for you!
Back in March, David and I took a trip to Baltimore to check out an MFA program that he had been accepted to. We initially decided not to go, but with the lure of scholarship money, we changed our minds, announced to our families that we were moving to Baltimore and then….. we decided not to go after all. Not the right opportunity or place for us, even if they were giving David a scholarship.
Soon after we got back from Baltimore, David was contacted by a company in northern Utah and they asked him to interview to be their new product designer. With both of us feeling anxious for a change, this unexpected opportunity falling into our laps felt like providence. Small town Utah wasn’t really anything either of us had hoped for or thought would be in the cards for us, but never ones to shy from an adventure, we decided to go for it and embrace Logan and all of its small town charm.
Unfortunately, it was pretty evident from day one that David’s job wasn’t what he expected or hoped it would be and that it wasn’t the sort of position that would help him grow in his career. I’ll spare you the details, but want to give my husband a shout out for trying his hardest everyday to find ways to take an obviously bad situation and turn it into a good one. I married a good man, y’all.
We both were feeling pretty discouraged about our circumstances here. I knew there would not be many job opportunities for me in development in such a small town, but with a university here, I had hoped there might be something. After several meetings with the heads of development at USU, it became obvious that I wasn’t likely to find a job for myself that would be a fit for me either. Not soon, anyway. Not happy.
Life with a bad job for David, no decent job for me and all in a town that is much smaller, colder, and isolated than either of us really want to live in (though Logan has its charms, no question. great dairy. great mountains.) left us feeling pretty discouraged about our decision to come here and not quite sure what to do next. We didn’t want to be “quitters” but we also didn’t want to feel stuck in a life where we didn’t feel like we were moving forward, especially if we didn’t have to be stuck.
Long story made short:
We decided to start looking for other options; doing better research this time around and being more deliberate in pursuing what we want instead of just going for whatever falls into our lap.
Luckily for me, I didn’t have to wait very long for a dream opportunity to come along and work out! I accepted a position last week as the Director of Annual Giving and Alumni at a private school in Salt Lake. It really is a dream position for me. It’s level of responsibility that I’ve been working towards for a long time and in an environment that I’m completely passionate about. I started this week and I couldn’t be more excited.
We’re both excited to be heading back to Salt Lake where we have friends and family that we love, there’s a great gallery stroll every month, and where you can actually look up movie times for all local theaters on the internet (Note to Logan on this matter: Seriously? Please get with the program.).
It’s been a really tough month and a half for us. But we’ve learned a ton. Mostly about ourselves and our priorities and the kind of life we really want to have together and what we are willing to do to and what we’re willing to give up to have it. We’ve also realized, even more so than we knew before, what great friends and family we have. Way to rally for us, people. We love your guts.
We’ll be in Logan for at least one more month, so if you were planning on coming to visit at some point, still do! Just plan on coming soon 🙂
Here are a few photos of our time in Logan 🙂
Logan is great for a good motorcycle ride through beautiful country.
Turns out I have a lot of family history in and around Logan. I’ve visited a few cemeteries to learn about my genealogy. This home in Wellsville was the the home of my great great grandfather and grandmother.
Fishing! Good times with some new friends.
Eh La Bah. 