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After reading this board for the last few days I was just wondering what made all of you move here! I am a long time lurker on this board. I have been reading it since my first visit to st thomas in 2003.
ok my story, I became friends with my new neighbors in Florida. It turned out that he was raised in st thomas and was going to college in florida. I became good friends with him and his girlfriends and the numerous st thomas buddies that came to visit through out the year. They were always talking about how great st thomas was and of its beauty . When it was time for them to leave the gave me the old you should come visit. so two months later I was on a plane and tracked them down. I spent a week with them and did all the tourist things we could do. Like most visitors I was very sad to leave and decided that one week was not long enough to see and do all the things I wanted to do.
Now I was 30 something divorced and had no children (only cats!) and I worked in the hospitality industry. I decide to go for it. I arrange a leave of absence from my job for 6 months and arranged to stay with friends I met in st thomas for a few days till I could find a place of my own. left in jan of 04 my friends helped me find a place to stay with 2 other people who were already established here. within a week I found a job as a server in a well known restaurant. I was set up! After the first month I was having a great time. after the second month things were getting more difficult. I wasn't that comfortable with my roommates. The parting and running around all the time got old. Not having a car was horrible. while the safari was extremely convenient to get to work it was not easy to go to kmart and have to get back with two or three bags of stuff . taxis were expensive for me and it seemed I always had to tell the taxi drivers at night that yes I had a husband he was waiting for me at home. it seemed that every time I went to the store for food it was $50.00 or more for just a few items ! I missed good affordable fresh veggies and meat!
I missed my friends at home and found it hard to build a strong friendship with the people around me. I never thought I would feel this way but the party scene was way more than I could handle and everyone I was meeting was really into that kind of thing. I also missed taco bell , 7-11 and walmart!!!
I did enjoy several great boating trips,music festivals and saw alot of the island the way I wanted to and stayed the whole 6 mths I planned for cause I am stubborn that way and because most of my friends and family thought I was crazy for doing this in the first place. the most common question was why are you going there? my answer cause I can I have no reason not to. I was very excited to go back to florida however and I left on good terms and had the option with my vi job to come back again next season. Oh by the way I had sublet my apt in florida so I had a place to go back to and the tenant took care of my pets while I was gone.
After I was back in florida and had my fill of 7-11 , taco bell and walmart I was at my old job and realized how rushed and pushy everybody was. everybody seemed so uptight and in a hurry and wanted everything NOW!
that is when the light bulb went off. there were things I liked about the relaxed ways of the islands and I really didn't need all those things I was missing. I made the decision I would go back to the islands and give another season a try. what did I have to lose!! well in the meantime florida got him by 4 hurricanes which 3 seriously effected me and I lost my job and had no possibly of another one without relocation! So my bosses from st thomas contacted me to see how I did thru the storms and told me to get on a plane that I always had a job in st thomas if I wanted it. I have been here ever since.
I will say it has not been easy when I came back I had been out of work for 2 months and pretty much came with nothing. But my bosses and the people I knew here helped me out as much as they could and within 2 months was on my feet and began a new life. Am I here forever? Don't know but at the moment I don't know where else I would like to be so one day one month one year at a time till the next adventure comes along!!
I hope you all share your stories about how you ended up in the vi or even why you came and left !
And good luck to all those thinking and planning on coming here just don't think moving to paradise is a piece of cake ! I do believe that by knowing people already here and by working for a season first helped me succeed in making it here and understanding the ways of the island.
Posted : April 2, 2007 5:01 am
I hated living in the States. I never got into a partying atmosphere down here & was lucky enough to be able to have my own place so no roommated to drive me batty or vice versa. That party routine can be the downfall of many. I got active in things in the community that meant a lot to me & gradually made good friends that way. I had no TV for the first year or so & this was pre-internet there wasn't much to do in free time.
I think some believe it's an easy, laid-back lifestyle. It can be in a way, but if you're too laid back, you're liable to lose your job. You do work hard here & you must if you're to succeed. A good work ethic/reliability will get you ahead even more than lots of experience in my opinion. I haven't been off on Christmas in 25 years if that gives you an idea.
If you can avoid the pitfalls of cheap booze & drugs, you stand a much better chance. If you're a wimp or a whiner, the VI may not be for you. If you're not self-reliant, it probably it's not for you. If you constantly need to be entertained, you might want to think twice before moving. If you remember that you need to adapt, not the rest of the VI, you might like it here.
Posted : April 2, 2007 10:07 am
We wanted a warm climate, beaches and to live under the American flag so we could work. We have not been disappointed.
Whenever someone asks "what brought you here", we always say AN AIRPLANE.
Posted : April 2, 2007 10:10 am
Mcgee/trade/linda
Thank you for your honest, yet positive comments. This is what others need to hear about coming to the islands. This tells us that once you get past the "starry eyed", fantasy land idea of island living, you can live here and enjoy it.
One of the things that you all have in common is "No children". A single person or a couple has a much better chance of a successful move than a family with children. Children are wonderful, but for them(especially school age) living in the Virgin islands can be a disaster.
Posted : April 2, 2007 3:18 pm
I have met many long and short term residents here with children who are doing great. They have all told me that the island is a great place to raise children. They come from all walks of life. Some of their kids are in public school and some in private. Not all of the private schools are just for the wealthy and most offers some sort of assistance. Maybe they they just don't post on this board.
Tammy
Posted : April 2, 2007 3:39 pm
dougtamjj while I do agree with you and more people need to speak up if this is the case I was just trying to say for some it has been a hard battle and greatstory was correct alot of us move here with starry eyes and thoughts of living in paradise and it is not all that . and I know alot of people with kids who have made it and not. and alot of them that have made it still find it a struggle everyday. I wrote of a story under teresa's post which shows one example. that is what this board is about the good bad and the ugly. people should read the boards ask there questions and make thier own decisions. you don't have to like what everyone is saying but if you ask it deal with the responses maybe that is why I like lurking so much . I still would love to hear more storys about how people ended up here and how they adjusted if they did and why they left if they did. maybe that would help others make their own decisions easier.
back to lurking again good luck everyone
Posted : April 2, 2007 6:56 pm
Maybe you should try STX. It is a lot more laid back and far less crowded than STT.
I think the parting thing is who you hang out with anywhere. You may need to make some new friends as well.
What IS bringing us to STX is the beauty, climate, friendly people , the laid back life style. We came in Dec 2004 for just a week visit, not looking for a place to move to. We have travled to many different islands and never had a desire to move there.
On our way home we look at each other and said we need to get a place there. We came back in April and bought a condo so we could come a few times a year. This trip down, we bought a piece of land so in 27 months ( but who's counting) when Annie retires we will at least split our time if not be here most of the time.
Posted : April 3, 2007 11:00 am
We had just spent three years in St. Petersburg, Russia (winter temps of -40), and had some money saved up. While on transfer leave, we rented a condo on STT for a week. STT was nice, but too crowded and too hilly; we didn't much care for driving on STT. We'd spent time on STX in the past, so we flew down for a day and looked at real estate. We ended up buying an acre on STX, planning to build our retirement home. Four years later (while serving in Vienna, Austria), we came to STX to dive for Christmas and discovered that the house next door to our acre was for sale -- we bought the house to save us the hassle of building. We rented the house out until we retired (last year) and then moved down. After a career of moving around the world for the US Government -- mostly from one cold place to another (Geneva, London, St. Pete, Berlin, Vienna), we now have a place in the sun we can call our own. We can go sailing and diving all over the Caribbean; we're still under the US flag, so our USG retirement and health insurance still pertains, and (at least prior to Katrina) we always thought we'd have FEMA to bail us out if anything desperate happened. To top it all off, since we were retiring "in the US or its possessions," Uncle Sam moved our HHE and car here for us. Now we pray and make sure our hurricane and flood insurance is paid up.
Posted : April 3, 2007 6:41 pm
Seems like you guys have had an interesting life to say the least. Are you guys still planning on building another home? You guys sure do have a lot of land.
Enjoy you retirement
Posted : April 3, 2007 6:44 pm
Congratulations on your retirement, Jefgar!
Why is everyone suddenly shy? 🙂
Posted : April 3, 2007 11:16 pm
