Noreen
Retiring from the military and choosing where to voluntarily move is a daunting yet amazing opportunity.
How do you pick where in the free world to put down roots. On a beautiful island separated from family that won’t fly to visit? Flip a coin? Draw out of a bucket of options? Research endlessly and allow the statistics to show where best fits with your own lifestyle, personality, wants, dreams, and future?
We did know, based on our children’s age and grade levels, that we needed to stay put wherever we put down roots for over a decade.
Starting with a spread sheet, highlighting several requirements that were weighted, we began to shrink our 10 state search down to the Fox Valley and eventually Ripon. Yes, a family, living across the Pacific Ocean chose to move to North East Wisconsin based on all that this area has to offer.
Ripon is now our home, by choice- great qualities, good points, as well as any deficiencies that might exist are ours. My family reaped the positives provided to us immediately upon purchasing our house and moving in. Great neighbors, wonderful schools, fabulous church family. All ours just by moving in, not based on anything the Johnsons contributed.
It is time to give back. Time to pay it forward to the future, while connecting to the past; I presently run the Ripon Senior Activity Center and in an effort to connect the wealth and breadth of knowledge, perspective, and skills, I look for ways to connect seniors to the youth and preserve our past.
The time is NOW to pay back to the people that made this city what it is and help it to usher in an era where our youth can look forward while remembering our past. Ripon is a gem. As a transplant we were drawn to its glory. As a resident, sometimes we need to be reminded why we chose this place out of anywhere in the entire world.
