readmeseymour

This is my first official post on Today and I’ll take this opportunity to introduce myself and tell you, the reader, who I am. I’m currently twenty-five and I live in Chattanooga, TN which is known only for a 40’s era big band song that was popular for a while. Besides a zoo, an aquarium, and an Imax theater there’s not a lot here to encourage tourism but supposedly it’s the number three tourist destination in America. Across the internet there was the sound of stunned silence.
I came here in 2002 when my father decided that love was worth moving 2,800 miles for. Before our epic trek across our great country we lived in a town called Eugene in the most beautiful place on Earth, Oregon. I may be a little biased as I was raised there but the general consensus of people who come back from a visit is agreement with my opinion. What truly makes Oregon great isn’t just one thing but how much is really there. The environment is still primarily untouched and you can drive from one side of the state to the other and see an amazingly diverse landscape. You can see mountains, the ocean, deserts, rainforests, plains, and bustling metropolis’ all within 8 hours driving time.

You may be asking yourself why I moved from such a miraculous place to the city that touts itself as the next Atlanta? Because I was young and you never really appreciate what you have until you no longer have it. However, I also believe that everything happens for a reason and if I had not moved to Chattanooga I wouldn’t have met and married my wife, had a child, found a decent day job in a company that slightly resembles Initech from the movie Office Space, and I wouldn’t have met some of the best friends a guy could ever have.

My wife grew up in Chattanooga and has resigned herself to never moving away from here, despite how much I try to convince her. There’s something about having family and roots somewhere that makes your feet very heavy and moving seem like an impossibility. Since the birth of our daughter in March moving has become more of a pipe dream than ever for me and I slowly see a life in the Willamette Valley slowly fading away. She’s traveled around the world and has seen things I could never imagine, but she’s never been out to the West Coast. We’ve decided that we’re definitely taking a trip out to God’s country soon and I feel the makings of a plan brewing inside me.

Meanwhile, I’m still going to be here in Chattanooga for some time and I hope you’ll keep tabs on my epic journey back to the West like Odysseus trying to get back to Ithaca. Maybe I’ll never make it and be consumed by the incessant singing of Chattanooga Choo Choo by the constant flow of tourists making their way to, as the bumper stickers put it, See Rock City. Let’s hope it’s the former and not the latter.

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