Over the weekend my wife and I came to an abrupt conclusion that neither of us had ever thought we would have such peace about. We’ve decided to stay put here in Wyoming, Ohio, and plant some roots.
Our house is technically still under contract and listed on the local MLS, but that should be coming to a close in the next day or so. This was the third time we’ve listed our house for sale in the six years we’ve lived here. Never have received a single offer on the place, but that is not what is keeping us here.
Call it the confluence of a few big life impacting events.
First was a routine checkup at the doctor’s office for my toddler son. Doc said he was doing great, except for his speech; he could benefit from some speech therapy. Turns out the nationally-ranked Wyoming School District has four speech therapists, and the service is covered by our (high) taxes. He’s been in weekly sessions for four months, and the results are nothing short of amazing. The woman he sees has been with the district so long that some of the WSD teachers are her former speech therapy students! If we lived in one of the many local school districts that are experiencing levy problems, we’d be paying around $150/session for the same service.
Second is pre-school. We’ve shopped a lot of pre-schools. Finally found one in Mason we liked, but umm…it’s, uh, Mason. Not exactly near by. If my boy made friends, and we had to trek up to Mason just to hang out, that would be a challenge. Through a Facebook friend my wife learned of a pre-school at a local Methodist church, and “as the crow flies,” it’s two blocks from our front door. We toured the school, had all questions thoroughly answered, and while there my son spent all of his time playing with the other older pre-schoolers. He was actually pissed when we had to leave. The price is right, too. In October our next son will be born, and so putting son #1 in pre-school this autumn will be perfect timing - we can even walk there until it turns too cold.
Third is business-related. A friend recently told me that he believes Wyoming is the most of-its-own community in all of Cincinnati. In other words, Wyomingites take care of themselves first. If I had to guess, I’d say that at least 1/3 of all my clients come from / came from Wyoming-related referrals or Wyoming-based business owners. Referrals have become referrers, and so it goes. This is a community filled with lots of successful business people, and I’m happy to be one of them. Leaving would certainly impact that.
Those are the Big Three reasons why we’re staying.
Sure, we’d like to have a house with a more open floor plan on a street with more kids my sons ages. But at some point I need to be content with life for a season. Since moving to Cincy I’ve heard more than a few people say the phrase “There’s always something better,” and while I can agree with that in some areas of life, I would literally hate myself if I lived by that phrase. It’s not an absolute truth. Sometimes pausing to look around and enjoy how far I’ve come is quite rewarding.
My wife and I came from lower-middle class homes, good homes, but not affluent by any stretch per American standards. We’ve been trying for three years to leave this little community of Wyoming, but now we have peace about staying. I couldn’t be happier about the decision.
