1. The best part of living in a mountain town is the multitude of available rock climbs, hiking trails, biking trails, and things to do outside on the lakes or in the valleys. Duh.
2. Summers are unbeatable. Winters have their own glittering, mysterious, quiet beauty; summers are warm, inviting, open and loving. They whisper of clandestine midnight lake swims, evening bonfires filled with laughter and song, and the golden embrace of the sun’s brilliant rays during long and gloriously free days. Even though I’ll work all summer, I’m still excited; summer nights are just as enjoyable as summer days. As soon as the sun fades from the sky, the heat dissipates and it’s a more comfortable setting in which to enjoy the beauty that surrounds us here in the folds of the Sierra Nevadas.
3. Winters are pretty baller, too. From shreddin’ pow to cozy afternoons by the fire when we’re drowning under feet of snow, there’s a vast array of things to enjoy during the winter months. It’s sunny almost every day, rarely reaches negative temperatures (when it does, it’s only at night), and I can only think of a couple weeks’ worth of days where the temperature didn’t eventually get above freezing during the day. Not much to complain about (I’m lookin at you, Bay Area people), especially when you’ve moved from the polar north.
4. Word travels fast around here. I’ve joked about small town gossip before, but THIS IS REAL. It almost makes me feel like I’m in the middle of a grade-B Hallmark movie plot that I’ll eventually wake up from and realize was just a dream. Or so I’d hope. There’s that person in town who is the eligible bachelor or bachelorette, and people talk about it to everyone else because everybody has to know what’s going on and has to have an opinion about it. In the same vein, it’s easy to be recognized around town. Because of my collection of jobs in the community, I oftentimes run into parents of my students from school, or someone from church at the grocery store or at Starbucks. This can be an unexpected joy; at other points, I just want to turn invisible and not have to plaster a fake smile on my face and make inane small talk. I’m surprised by how much I intermittently miss the anonymity that cloaked me whenever I went out in Minneapolis or St. Paul. There, at least if a date went poorly, no one had to know about it, and I didn’t have to see that person whenever I ran errands around town.
5. Efficiency is key. When living in a mountain town, errand days are condensed to a one day-long venture to Reno, 30-40 minutes away. This means that I’m limited in the number of impulse purchases I can make per week, simply because I’d have to go so far out of my way to make them. This has been a very positive change. I’ve made a deal with myself that almost anything I find in Target that I like, I have to at least wait until the next week to purchase. That way I know that if I’m still even thinking about it in a week’s time, it might actually be “necessary” (let’s be honest, what impulse buys in Target are ever necessary? Oh, the lies we tell ourselves….), or at least be worth buying. I’ve noticed this has cut down considerably on nonsensical splurges (yes, that book looks great, but have I ever considered going to the library for it instead? That way it won’t collect dust on my shelf after I read 4 pages and give up on it. And really? Another red nail polish? Don’t I have 10 of these at home already? I know I don’t have the exact shade of Berrylicious Delight, but won’t Forever Yummy suffice? By the way, how many red nail polishes is a girl allowed to have before it’s too many? Just asking for a friend here…).
6. Traffic is either amazing or terrible. In the off season (Sept-November, April-early June), cars hum along I-80 and highways 89 and 267 seamlessly with few problems or congestions. During the heavy tourist seasons? Two words: Good luck. Plan to leave really early in the morning to go anywhere, or budget an extra 30-90 minutes for travel time. Take your pick.
7. It’s easy to find jobs here because Truckee is a tourist town; this is a blessing and a curse. With 5 jobs in addition to local church involvement, I end each week exhausted more often than not. I crave my Sabbath day to venture out on some new hiking trail, or to sit in the sun and read a book. It’s been refreshing and necessary and I don’t feel guilty for choosing to occasionally rest instead of constantly work. Boundary lines are slowly becoming firmer, and this is a. Very. Good. Thing.
8. It takes a surprising amount of time to feel established here. These first 10 months have felt largely like using the guess and check strategy for an algebra problem: I’ll think that I have a logical answer to a scheduling inconvenience or a problem at work, only to find out that it doesn’t quite fit and it’s time to go back to the drawing board. This has increased my faith exponentially. Every time I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve felt like I just can’t take it anymore, I’ve prayed for the Lord to change my heart, my attitude or my circumstances. Each and every time, He’s answered that prayer, and it’s usually been in ways beyond what I could have hoped for.
9. The community here is incredible. Living with my best friend and her husband and kids is a blessing. Who doesn’t want to wake up and have a cup of coffee and chat with the person who knows you best in the world? I was afraid it might get old, or that they’d get sick of me, but (and maybe this is because I’m gone house and dogsitting for others about two weeks out of every five…) it hasn’t. It’s the best. It keeps me grounded in what real life is—beautiful, messy, full of “I’m sorry”s and “you’re the best!”s and all the rest.
10. It’s a difficult spiritual environment here in Truckee. Living in California has challenged my faith and my trust more than at almost any other season in my life. I have struggled and wrestled with my faith and have asked more real, hard questions of my Lord than ever before. I’ve lost hope more times than I can count, and have doubted that this really was the right decision, or that I’ll ever find a man out here who loves Jesus, is close to my age and unmarried (it’ll be a miracle, I assure you), or whether or not I really actually, truly want to return to the teaching profession (it’s in my blood, though. I can’t get away from it).
Through all of these best and worst parts, I’ve learned that it’s okay to doubt, to struggle, and to fight through life at some points. At least the Lord is moving me forward, and though I sometimes feel paralyzed by fear when I think of the next step, I’m grateful He’s provided so many amazing people with whom to walk this road, and an absolutely stunning view around every turn. As Bob Goff says in his most recent, brilliantly written book Everybody, Always:
“There are plenty of questions I still have. I usually don’t have all the green lights I’d like. There’s probably a lot you don’t have nailed down yet either. Be honest with yourself about these things. God is less concerned about the people who admit their doubts than the ones who pretend they’re certain. Each day I start with the things I’m certain about and try to land my weight on those things. It always starts with a loving, caring God who is tremendously interested in me and the world I live in.”
After all, what else do we need?
