I want to move because Peoria is seriously lacking in opportunities. Unless you want to work for Caterpillar or a Cat contractor, there aren't many job opportunities. There also aren't many options for getting more education. Unless you want to attend ICC (also known as "I Can't Spell"), or Bradley (and pay as much as my entire undergraduate degree cost to take approximately seven classes), there are no options in Peoria proper. If I wanted to drive 40 minutes both ways to go to ISU I could, but I just don't have time. These things are both a problem for me, since my degree in Justice Systems isn't very useful and there aren't really any opportunities for that here. I have a minor in Statistics, but it hasn't been enough to get a job outside of my current one.
I realize that Matt and I are incredibly fortunate to both have jobs and we're not going to just give them up to move. I know that my situation in particular (working retail) is never going to get better without a) more companies providing wider variety job opportunities or b) getting more education. I know that if I can't find a job with normal working hours using the skill sets and knowledge I have, I want to go back to school to do more with Statistics. It is truly what I love to do and it's what I want to do on a daily basis.
Obviously, there are countless options for places that Matt and I could move and where we could find jobs and good universities, but there are several good reasons Omaha is at the top of our list.
- Cost of living
- This one is huge. Yes, we would probably have more opportunities in a bigger city than Omaha, but it is much more expensive to do so. We would rather play it safe now and live somewhere we know we can afford. This gives us the opportunity to build our savings so that we can move to a bigger city (preferably in Europe, and by Europe I mean Austria, and by all of that I really mean Vienna) when we're a bit older and more established.
- Work opportunities
- There are several Fortune 500 companies based in Omaha and plenty outside the realm of the Fortune 500s. There are ample job opportunities (especially compared to Peoria) and Omaha has one of the better unemployment rates in the country. And like I said before - there may not be as many opportunities as other, bigger cities but there are enough jobs there that both Matt and I should be able to find something we love to do with the potential for growth.
- Education opportunities
- Odds are, I (and potentially Matt too) will end up going back to school. Both Omaha and Lincoln have great universities for a great price. Fortunately, I never moved anywhere for the purpose of getting in-state residency for school and as such I'm still considered a Nebraska resident for tuition purposes. And since Matt married me, he counts as a resident too. Plus, UNL has a great graduate Statistics program that works closely with Gallup. I would love to be in that program.
- Social Life
- Being a young couple, being social is important. There aren't many opportunities here that we've found. Peoria is kind of boring in that regard. We don't really drink at all and we're not big movie people. Beyond that, there's not much to do. We've had a lot of problems finding ways to meet people without spending a lot of money. We know a lot more people in Omaha than we do in Peoria, and there are a lot more things to do there than here. A big part of it is the size of Omaha - there are simply more events there.
- This sort of counts as social life too (and much more!), but I think our church life will be much better in Omaha as well. There are far, far more churches there than here and there are several I know that I'm comfortable with. Plus, the Knights of Columbus in the Omaha Archdiocese has many younger members, and I think it really would be great for Matt to join.
In addition to all of these things, Omaha has multiple Chipotles. And Runza. And a hundred other restaurants/places that I absolutely adore that I can't get here. Granted, with my new diet I can't really eat at most of those restaurants, but just knowing they're there makes me happy. And I can go to my mothership (the Apple store) whenever I like. And let's not forget that my other mothership (Memorial Stadium) is a mere 45 minute drive!
And as silly as it sounds, I'll be closer to Duchesne. So much of who I am is because of my four years there (I feel like I'm more defined by those four years than by any other time in my life). I've grown and changed since then, but I wear my class ring proudly every day because I want to represent well everything that Duchesne stands for. I don't always succeed, but I always try.
On that note, I think I'll end this. It's almost one in the morning and I should probably do something reasonable like sleep, aber ich bin nicht müde. Instead, I think I'll work on my German more, so I can say more than five words at a time auf Deutsch.
Tschüss!
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