Hello, Harrisburg!

I am at what my friend Tim describes as a ‘pivot point’; that phase in your life when everything that you are seems to reject you outright, when the Fates or the Universe turns against you-when you know that you’ve overstayed your welcome in your current phase of life.

For some time now I’ve been outgrowing this skin; I could feel it stretching, uncomfortably and finally to the point of pain, ripping into bloody strips. Even so, I’ve been reluctant to leave the old and the safe and the known behind.

Do you ever get that feeling; that you’re living a multi-phase life? Life seems to happen in spurts and starts, not one long natural progression.

My first seismic upheaval was when I graduated from high school and went on to college. It certainly was a welcome change. That last year of high school, like with most seniors, was slow torture for me. I wanted to be done, to be grown and look after myself.

I couldn’t wait to get away from home and except for the following summer when I returned home for summer vacation, an act I instantly regretted, I never lived at home again.

I sailed through college and by my senior year, I was ready to move on again, eager to get out of the educational system, even though I loved learning. I had had enough of that kind of structured learning.

I moved to Boston with my boyfriend the day after college graduation. We both had jobs waiting and so we began our adventure together. However, in the mid nineties, a dull routine and a dissatisfaction had set in, and eventually I was no longer part of a couple and moved on to another life in another town, one of a series over the next few years.

Eventually I landed in Providence RI, having bought my first home at the age of 31. I had a great career as a retail buyer, something I had been striving for for years. I had a Craftsman home, and a beautiful garden that I started from nothing, and some wonderful little animals (Bobbie, Wei Wei and Sunshine) for companionship. I loved RI; I loved its smallness. One can drive from south to north in about an hour. And if you live there long enough, you learn that you are only one or two degrees separated from everyone in Rhode Island.

I was quite happy there but in 2010 I entered the next phase and this one was an involuntary change. A corporate restructure was occurring and my job was leaving the state. I had known that it was only a matter of time before our company was tossed into upheaval the way so many corporations are these days. Besides, the rumors of a reorg had been swirling for quite some time prior, and I’d seen a few higher ups quietly leave one by one, so I can’t say the announcement was a total shock.

So I moved to Harrisburg in 2010. Although I love my neighborhood and my house, the transition was a rocky one that left me resentful and insecure for several years and yet after some time went by, I began to feel secure and began to grow roots again.

And now another transition has happened; This year saw yet another corporate restructure, messy, ugly, ripping. Moving again became a option.

But in the years since arriving here, I have started my own company, flipping houses in and near my neighborhood. I love the old houses here. I have gotten involved in several charities and organizations, made friends here. Moving again so soon was not something I was willing to do when faced with that decision. I didn’t want to go through those years of upheaval and unhappiness again.

So I’ve decided to take another path, one that I have now set upon in my new career and venture into real estate. I’m looking forward to scaling up my house flipping business.I’m excited about the future and what the coming years will bring.

I’m helping put together a nonprofit that could be potentially transformational to the Uptown section of the city. Once it’s off the ground I’ll be talking about it a little more here.

And I’ll be sharing a little more about myself and about Harrisburg, a city I’ve come to love. There’s a certain quirkiness in the ethos here, and a bit of self-deprecating shoulder shrugging that collectively occurs, yet that acknowledgement that things are far from perfect is also tempered with a gently pervasive pride from those who live here. There’s so much potential here. Harrisburg was once a thriving city and it can be that once again. It too, lives a multi-phase life, growing, stagnating, declining and then growing again.

In the short time I’ve been here, it’s been fascinating to watch both downtown and midtown come alive again, and now Allison Hill is starting to see some major investment with the MulDer Square project. In many ways, Harrisburg is very much like Providence, the city I most recently vacated. The scale is similar, and they share similar stories and are from the same era.

So, we shall see what the years bring to all of us! So, hello, Harrisburg! I’m Beck. Nice to know ya.