WHY on EARTH...?

Anytime someone comes to visit me, especially during winter, I get asked, "Why on Earth would you live in Sioux Falls, South Dakota?" I tell them that I love it here, and I can't imagine living any where else. The usually respond with some comment about my mental status. Although where you live does not necessarily have to do with "Working Smarter," my point in the following is that if you are being more efficient in your job, you should be saving that time to have a personal life. Where you live will have a large bearing on what kind of life that will be.

Full disclosure, here - when my husband and I graduated from college, we shoved all of our stuff in a moving van and drove to Colorado Springs, CO. I can't say we "moved" there, since technically we didn't have a place to live when we arrived at the base of Pike's Peak. We didn't technically have jobs, either. I don't know what we were thinking, but we now refer to it as our "young and stupid" phase. 

It was only a week, before we found an apartment and shortly after found permanent employment. The weather was gorgeous there, year round, and the scenery was breath-taking. We stayed for three years. Eventually, however, we realized that even making more money than we ever had in our lives, we would never be able to afford a house in this city. 

Our daughter was born in Colorado Springs and when she turned two years old, we started looking at pre-schools. The choices were not appealing, which made us look closely at the public elementary schools. What we discovered is that like in most big cities, many of the schools suffered from overcrowding, lack of funding, and overworked and under qualified teachers. Not to say that all the public schools fall in this category. However, if we were to choose to participate in open-enrollment into one of the nicer schools, we would have had to put our name on a very long waiting list and hope for the best. We would have also had to find transportation for our daughter to and from school, which would have been about a 40 minute commute. 

Spring at "The Falls"

There were so many other reasons that we were becoming disillusioned with big city life, but the final two straws happened within a week of each other. First, there was a robbery and shooting two blocks from our apartment building, and then our retired neighbor lady got beat up in the park across the street. That was it. We packed up our stuff and moved back to good ol' Sioux Falls (once again without jobs or a place to live - what were we thinking?!) Here's a top ten reason why I love Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

1. The people. People are genuinely nice in Sioux Falls. You can strike up a conversation with strangers just about any place and no one thinks it is odd. People are always willing to help each other out.
2. The size. At just over 150,000 people (about 230,000 in the metro area), Sioux Falls is just big enough to have plenty of things to do, retail stores, and restaurants; but small enough not to have traffic problems and high crime rates. I can get anywhere in Sioux Falls in 20 minutes, even if it is "all the way" on the other side of town, during "rush hour."
3. The schools. Our kids actually attend schools in Brandon, which is about 10 miles away, but I could move any where within 30 miles of Sioux Falls and not worry about which school district we were in.
4. The economy. The unemployment rate in Sioux Falls is only 3.8%, compared to 8.2% national average. (source: http://bls.gov/web/metro/laummtrk.htm) The average yearly income is about $26K, which doesn't seem that great, but the average house only costs about $130K. (source: http://www.simplyhired.com/a/local-jobs/city/l-Sioux+Falls,+SD)
5. Small businesses thrive. "Locally owned and operated" is one of the biggest selling points to consumers in Sioux Falls. The lack of red tape and tax breaks for start-ups is also a huge plus.

So, to conclude, I implore you to take a good look at not only what you are doing with all that extra time you have by being more efficient at your job, but where you are spending that time. Are you a big city, small town, or country person? Do you like to go dancing at the clubs, see a play at the theater, enjoy live music or museums? Are all of those things available where you live? Do you have friends where you live? Do you feel like you fit in there? Sure, we complain about the cold winters in Sioux Falls, but when I take into consideration all the other benefits, I just smile and wear more layers.