The Move


North Dakota was a hot topic for me long before I decided to move here. It was when my boyfriend told me that he was moving to North Dakota that I learned about the oil field and all the job opportunities there. Ever since then I was plagued with the question of whether or not to make the move.

A year later, after I graduated from college, I finally decided to “give it a try for a month.” So I took the plunge and moved to Williston.

I went from living by myself, just a couple of hours drive away from my parents, to living states away in a house with my boyfriend’s family. To say it was an adjustment is an understatement, but by the end of the month I was engaged, and I was actively looking for jobs.

Unbeknownst to me, I was in Williston for the long haul.

We moved out of my in-laws house into an apartment. After a few false starts I landed a job that wasn’t exactly in the realm of my college degree but that I ended up loving, and I ended up with some great coworkers too.

I now have a daughter, who we like to call our souvenir from North Dakota. We frequently fly back to Washington to see my family. Even though getting out of this city is a bit of a pain, it’s worth it to get to spend time with them.

We’ve traveled all around this area now, from Minot to Minneapolis all the way up Canada and down to Rapid City, South Dakota. We’ve had some adventures and picked up a lot of tips and tricks for living in the Bakken (and surviving those infamous North Dakota winters!)

I’ll admit when I first moved here I couldn’t see why anyone would want to live here, but after four years North Dakota won me over. It’s not a life I ever would have imagined for myself, but now I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.

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