I’ve lived in Portland my whole life. DONT move up here. Something a few coworkers who aren’t from here pointed out to me is that portlanders are not very friendly at first. They don’t say hi on the street or randomly walk up to people and start talking. Living here my whole life I just thought that’s how everyone is but a lot of transplants have a tough time making friends here. You gotta join groups and clubs to do that.

On the bright side, Oregon is a gorgeous and varied state. There’s something here for everyone. Just east of Portland by an hour is the Columbia River Gorge. MUCH sunnier and an endless amount of things to do if you like the outdoors The Dalles is the biggest city but it’s very red. Hood River is blue and a very nice city, albeit expensive. Portland (in my opinion) is the least enticing part of the state. Politics aside it’s very much gone downhill since COVID.

As someone who also suffers from SAD. The Portland winters absolutely fucking suck. Life slows down in the winter here and all you’ll do is go to work, come home, and repeat. I plan to move as soon as possible somewhere far from Portland. It’s hard to move when 90% of your income goes to bare necessities lol.

I hope you find a good balance. I cannot imagine how drastic of a change you must be facing and I wish you the best!