The Beginning of my Oregon Story

So, now that I was in Oregon, I was having a hard time adjusting. One moment I was surrounded by rednecks and conservatives, and the next moment I was surrounded by a bunch of free-spirited liberals. I’m more in the middle of politics and I feel like I can hold a conversation with either party, but Portland people are a different kind of breed. While walking downtown, I saw all different kinds of people. To the left, I noticed pimped out cars, blasting music all the way down main street. To the right, I noticed a homeless man asking somebody for food. Up ahead, my friend and I were walking to the mall just to get some Raising Canes.

Inside the mall was even crazier. I saw someone with pink-dyed hair, and wearing a construction outfit with a Hello Kitty beanie. Now, I’m no hater and I appreciate anyone being themselves, but it was all so new to me. In Fremont County, anyone who had bright, dyed hair was laughed at and considered “weird.” And now, I was finally in a place that embraced the weird. Hell, Portland’s logo is “Keep Portland Weird.” What was hard to adjust to was all the noise. Driving around Portland takes hours sometimes just because of traffic. Even though I didn’t live in the heart of the city, I still felt like I was too close to everything. My small hometown is a little sad, but I soon realized I might prefer a quiet town to an overwhelming city. The lyrics “there’s something in the country I can’t leave, something in the city I can’t breathe,” was all too real. And though I was making friends, I ran into some interesting characters.

Since I’m still in school, I figure serving or bartending would be the best money maker. I only have to work for five hours and can make $100-$150 a shift. (You can make even more serving at other places) When I moved to Oregon, my best friend and I immediately got a job at Olive Garden. While working there, we met a few really great friends. One friend moved away after her boyfriend started working with us and randomly ended things with her, but I still see her every once in a while. Another friend has regular game nights that I always attend with someone else we met at work. Meanwhile, one “friend” turned out to be a criminal, another turned out to be a cheater, and one was just straight up fake.

The worst “friend” we made was this girl who got together with our third roommate. On the Fourth of July, we thought it would be a good idea to throw a small girl’s night sleepover and that girl came. Once our roommate was asleep, she couldn’t stop spilling the beans about how awful he was in bed. Not only did she reveal his size was not up to par, but she also told us she was only with him to make someone else jealous and she just “liked the attention.” Once she got lost off on a tangent, I excused myself from the conversation. My poor best friend was trapped though. I later found out this girl trauma dumped to my best friend and also tried to kiss her. Once the morning came around, we immediately told our roommate the tea, but that didn’t stop him from still seeing her. Not to mention, he completely disregarded us and the living situation grew tense.

Luckily, I had another place to escape to. The first few weeks of my Oregon stay led me to think about everything. My Fremont Country past, my unknown future, and where I could find myself living for a while. As I questioned where I belonged, I met a boy. He was originally from Ohio but was stationed in Hawaii for his four year army contract. After his four years was up, he was offered a position at Intel in Oregon. One night, my roommates and I thought we should get dating apps at the same time so we could meet some more people. When I first met my now boyfriend, I could tell we would be really great friends. As time would tell, he was looking to travel just like me. It didn’t take long for us to start going on small trips together. We started out by going to the coast together and stayed for weekend trips.

Though I wasn’t sure where I belonged, it helped knowing there was another person like me just wandering around. We were having a blast travelling around Oregon, and I finally felt like I was getting comfortable living here. And even though my best friend and boyfriend had some troubles getting along at the start, they had grew to have a friendship together. Hell, we even planned to all move in together and get away from our ex-friend roommate. Unfortunately, Oregon had more in store for me than I could ever imagine or prepare myself for, and this was only the beginning of my Oregon story.