For the first 25 years of my adult life, I lived in Midtown Memphis. I hated long commutes and chose jobs with that in mind. They were usually within 2 miles or so of my apartment. In 1998, my company decided to move to Germantown, a city just east of Memphis. I really, really didn’t want to drive across the entire city to get there and decided to change jobs. One day a co-worker’s husband came by to take her to lunch. In the course of our conversation, he mentioned that there was an opening at his company, just a few blocks away. I applied, interviewed and was quickly hired.
In 2003, I bought a house. I couldn’t afford one in Midtown so I moved to an eastern suburb. Of course, I hated the long commute but by that point I was vested in my company’s retirement plan and not getting any younger, so I sucked it up. But then a few months later, my division was relocated to a new workspace just 2 miles from my house! I couldn’t believe it. I joked that I bought that house because I could see the future. I worked there until I retired in 2020. Because I happened to talk to a co-worker’s husband that day, I was able to avoid the horrors of a long commute for another 22 years. And it was a pretty good company to work for.