Go West, young man, go West and grow up with the country.

- Horace Greeley

Despite being said in 1865, there has never been so many people heeding Mr. Greeley's advice as there are now. Every week, I find that one of my college classmate's has decided to go West. And why not? There's riches to be made thanks to a booming tech industry, and the weather is good. Unlike the olden days, where you had to suffer the Oregon Trail, there's not much risk at all.

As it turns out, when your hobbies consist of math, reading, and picking heaving things up and putting them down, every city is virtually the same. Despite Seattle being colder and cloudier and having nice mountains like Mount Shuskan picture above, I don't feel markedly different than I did in Philadelphia.

The biggest change in my life has been going from living in a house with 6 guys to having my own bedroom with only 1 roommate. With the quiet, I definitely find myself getting more work done, but I'll miss having the guys around for sure.

Some mint chocolate chip ice cream that I made with Masato before I left. See The Only Ice Cream Recipe You’ll Ever Need for the recipe.

Now, that I've moved several times in my life (Hatfield, PA $\rightarrow$ Durham, NC $\rightarrow$ Cambridge, MA $\rightarrow$ Philadelphia, PA $\rightarrow$ Seattle, WA), I've started to reflect on any regrets and what I miss. Certainly, there are all those restaurants and eats that I forgot to try. I never did eat at Craigie on Main or try a cheesesteak from Pat's or Gino's. There are missed opportunities like never having gone to the top of the Chapel or taking a certain class. However, what always haunts me the most are the people that I wish that I had gotten to know better. It always seemed that so many connections were missed. People were just busy, feelings were misinterpreted, or the timing was just bad, and as a result, nothing ever happened. Of course, there's the very real possibility that the people that I wanted to get to know better had no interest in getting to know me, so maybe, I'm just talking nonsense.

There was some part of me that did want to stay in Philadelphia, but no opportunity ever came up to do so. It's probably best that I left, though. While I was comfortable, my life did seem to be stagnating in some respects. In the month leading up to my going away, I found myself mostly just watching Korean dramas with my brother. That is to say, I wasn't accomplishing much of anything useful with my time, and with the exception of the guys in the house, I didn't have much other community. Essentially, I was a ghost. Perhaps, moving to a new city will reinvigorate me.