June 2022 I loaded up a U-haul with the help of my small group and started driving towards MN.

It was a hot day, and my Subaru Impreza in tow gave me gas mileage I hope I never see again. I didn't have a lot of possessions and so renting a U-haul felt silly but I also knew I didn't want to make two trips. I listened to the rap song "right above it" as I ate dots pretzels and drank a kickstart. The U-haul with a trailer was terrible to park at the pump. I visibly remember putting $80 into the vehicle after driving for 2 hours in it. Wow. Gas goes quick.

I felt like I was doing something really incredible but also very scary. In the few years that followed I have had time to reflect on it and review a couple of the ups and downs.

Leaving Stevens Point was always going to be hard. I was well connected, and still have some of my closest friends who live in that portion of the state. I'd lived there for 10 years after graduating college and had been so plugged in with Woodlands Church in Plover in a variety of ways that made it seem impossible to disconnect or leave. I loved the location, the people, the cost of living and the office job I'd worked (Skyward). So you might ask, then why did you leave? I've been reflecting on a few answers since then and I suppose the best way to answer is to say I wanted the opportunity to grow, I wanted the opportunity to live near a big city, and I wanted to grow my wedding video business. I felt that a physical move would give me the ability to grow and the adventure would be something that I'd be able to look back on in life and be proud of making a change even when everything was comfortable.

I think some other contributing factors were as time went on and my friends got married and had kids it just wasn't possible to maintain the level of friendships I had before. It was a natural progression of life and there wasn't any resentment in me, but I found myself often times trying to find community in new areas. One of the best places was the young adult group at Highlands church in Wausau, WI. It was a great place to hear a good message, connect with community, and grow. Some other places I found it was at the Point Forward Physical Therapy run club that met at 5:45am on Tuesday mornings from their office. The other run group was the group Tom Wetter coined "club men" in a reverse phycological move to try and attract more women to join the run group. These friends are still very dear to me to this day. That running group doesn't have a link or a website. It's an email thread of about 500 people of which only 4-5 show up consistently. It's a great group.

Ok, back to what I was talking about...

The move to MN. The first days were really tough. The stress of trying to buy a town house- closing costs, and then the loan stalling out because of the use of a credit card caused my closing date to be moved. My entire life was in the back of a U-haul cooking at 95 degrees while I sat in downtown Saint Paul in the office of results title. I remember the name of the company because they gave me a coffee mug after I paid them $6,500 in closing costs. That coffee mug is valuable to me. I have a tangible thing for the service. Good marketing on their part.

When I finally got my keys to the place my Aunt Debbie came over to help me move in. The smell of cigarettes, cat urine, mothballs, and marijuana permeated the town house as I entered. It was 99 degrees inside and the air conditioner couldn't catch up. The place smelled, my clothes started to smell like it as well.

"What have I gotten myself into?" went through my head. I felt like I needed to fix it now. I called a contractor for fumigation help, they directed me to repaint everything with oil based paints. They stated that the ceiling paint often is a large culprit, as well as odors can live in the paint for years. I decided to scrape off the popcorn ceilings and repaint. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. With the help of a 3 day weekend (4th of July), Debbie Etter, Bethany Hasenberg, and a few other friends I was able to get a majority of the smell out. It took probably 120 man hours but the place no longer smelled terrible. Now it just looked terrible. I had gotten the oil based primer on the wood color trim. I didn't care. The smell was gone and that was the biggest offense to my senses. The next step was removing some of the cat poop stashed under the stairs. My uncle Kyle Etter put on gloves and got it out and ripped up the carpet and threw that out as well. I will forever be thankful for his help. Thank you Uncle Kyle.

You might be asking, "Tim why did you buy this place if you knew it took so much work?" Great question, I bought it site unseen as my realtor walked through it on a 30 degree day. The smell was masked enough when it was cold (I'm giving her benefit of the doubt) but when it was 99 degrees with no AC all the smells came out. I bought it for asking with waived inspection as the highest bidder. At this moment in my life I was figuring out why I was the highest bidder.

I need to wrap this post up because i'm rambling and this has already gone too long but all to say, it was so bumpy the first year here in MN. I learned that MN neighbors aren't like WI people who will talk with any stranger at the gas pump. That was hard to get used to when in Stevens Point I would see 3 friends every time I went to Aldi. In MN, I have a neighbor I see once in a while get their mail. I've tried initiating conversation multiple times and I still have never spoken to them in person. It's been 2 years living here and never had an in person conversation. That was astounding to me. My other neighbor Shirley (HOA president btw) told me "They keep to themselves." I once dropped off a starbucks gift card to try and bridge the gap. They answered me through their doorbell cam and said they appreciated the gesture.

One bright spot was joining a running community. Mill City running shoe store became a place I could connect with other runners and establish the discipline of showing up in the early mornings in the winter for miles with friends. Through that group I ran 2 marathons and made a few friends. One of the highlights of that community is last winter I got invited to a Christmas party. I had never been invited to a Christmas party before and getting to meet more people and get invited to more events made MN start to feel like a home. Ok, being honest now, my writing is starting to waiver a bit as I am thinking about the photo session I need to edit.

Closing thoughts.

Moving was an adventure. It was hard. Friends are worth keeping. Distances are worth traveling to see friends. Moving was worth it as it helped foster a lot of growth and presented new opportunities. God was good to me then and He's been good to me now.

Ok that's the end of this first short post on my move to the MN area. Next time I'll cover my thoughts on being a vikings fan in Wisconsin and then moving to Minnesota.

Here's a few photos from the shoot I got to do tonight near the university of Minnesota Campus with the Minneapolis Skyline in the background.