I took this picture in 2013 in one of the many colorful neighborhoods of Seattle, Washington

I am very happy to say that I will be moving to Washington state in approximately 4-6 weeks.  When I was living in Georgia five years ago, it was always my ultimate goal to live in the pacific northwest, specifically to live close to Seattle.  And now after my three year stay in Colorado, that tiny part of my life that involves me doing doctor things will be taking me to the land of Pearl Jam and the resting ground for the Seattle Supersonics.

Even though I will move to just 30 miles north of Seattle in a few weeks, I won’t start my work there until the end of this year.  This will give me some time to settle in and do (even more!) traveling to visit family and friends.  I am indeed looking forward to this next chapter and hope that this will be the ultimate place for me to settle down.

With happy occasions like this, there are of course going to be a few letdowns, and I would be lying if I said this decision was easy and that I would not miss my life here in Colorado.  When I first came to Colorado Springs three and half years ago, I did not know a soul here. Moreover, I had never gone rock climbing or skiing before ever in my life.  And all this time later, I have a really big group of friends through my outdoor excursions, and I cannot imagine my life without skiing or rock climbing or hiking.

When I arrived in Colorado in 2015 I was not in the best state of mind.  Taking up activities like skiing and climbing and, moreover, forming life time bonds with the friends doing these activities with me made me discover a part of myself which I had no idea even existed.  This was almost like the time when I was 19 and I stuffed the German language in my head in a two year time span.  This was a very enriching experience I had here in Colorado

For all the reasons I listed above I can easily say that this was a very successful and enriching time of my life here in Colorado. With all of the things I have done here, there are still some places I have not yet seen.  I would love to visit Aspen and see the sand dunes of San Luis Valley.  It might be a bit difficult to squeeze that in with my packing and planning, but we’ll see.  I’m at least glad that I made it out to Telluride this past weekend to see Robert Plant and Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite play music in the background of Telluride’s beautiful fall colors.

And with that said, there is still a little bit of music for me to see here in Colorado as I will attend both Nine Inch Nails shows at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in the coming days.  Now, that is a music venue authentic to Colorado that I could talk about for days on end.

The most important thing for me during my time here in Colorado are the friends I made for a lifetime. Some of you even saved my life after a rock climbing fall I had, which makes the bonds I formed here even more special. This blog post would go on forever if I mentioned each and every one of you who impacted my life in such a meaningful way these past three years.  In the coming weeks I am sure we will all meet and hang out and do some outdoor excursion one last time before I set off to the pacific northwest.

My time in Colorado has me excited that new wonderful adventures await me in Washington state which will also enrich my life with great long lasting friendships.