I Left My Heart in San Francisco

Sometimes, God throws you a fastball. Sometimes, He throws you a curve.

Well, He just threw a curve to my wife and I that is taking us on another "Maier Adventure."

Ever since our first trip to Boston in June 2009 to catch a Red Sox game at Fenway Park, we've loved the city. In fact, six months later, I sent initial feelers out to higher education institutions there to see what opportunities existed for a professional communicator.

There were numerous online applications, email rejections, a few phone interviews. But after more than four years, we were no closer to Boston than to Billings, Mont. So, I started thinking about other cities we loved and would want to call home, and on that short list was San Francisco.

Erica and I visited San Francisco in 2008. And while Boston was the initial focus of my job search, I had been checking out SF for prospects. One institution was the University of California, San Francisco, which is world renowned in health care. In fact, during my time at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, we considered ourselves among the top U.S. health care institutions, along with Harvard Medical School and UCSF.

Just a few weeks ago, I found an opening for a senior public information representative. The primary duties are covering certain medical/health beats and media relations, areas that I'm familiar with and have expertise. So, I applied, interviewed, and now we're on our way to San Francisco!

Yep, instead of the East Coast, we're off to the West Coast.

San Francisco at night

SF also has a great public transit system and is quite walkable, if you don't mind the hills. In fact, it's second to New York and ahead of Boston in not needing a car. There's a lot of preparing, packing and unpacking ahead for our first interstate move, but it should be pretty straightforward, as we don't have a mortgage, children or pets.

I want to thank my wife for her support, allowing me to leave my job at the Texas A&M Health Science Center after more than seven years while she continued to work. It gave me time to clear my head, relax and see what the big wide world has to offer. I admit getting a little bit of cabin fever, but I also had a chance to catch up on Springer (as the father-in-law says, that show's gotten pretty bad).

I'd also like to thank Joel Osteen and Jon Acuff. Joel is a preacher and pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, the largest congregation in the country. Erica and I watch him every week and make it a point to attend Sunday service whenever we're in town. His most recent book, Breakout!, offers five keys to going beyond your barriers and living an extraordinary life: believe bigger; consider God, not circumstances; pray God-sized prayers; keep the right perspective; and don't settle for good enough.

"When God laid out the plan for your life He lined up the right people, the right breaks, and the right opportunities. He already has your yeses planned out...Now here's the key: On the way to yes there will be nos. You have to go through the nos to get to your yeses....You have to go through your closed doors before you reach your open doors. When you come to a no, instead of being discouraged the correct attitude is 'I'm one step closer to my yes.' " (Breakout!, Page 76)

Jon is a Christian author and blogger. Erica read his books and followed his social media accounts, then suggested I go with her to an April 2013 speaking engagement in Austin. It was a life-changer. He was promoting his latest book, Start., which says there are only two paths in life: average and awesome. The average path is easy because all you have to do is nothing. The awesome path is more challenging because things like fear only bother you when you do work that matters. The book gives practical, actionable insights to be more awesome more often.

"We've been told our whole lives that our 20s are when we begin down our career paths. And our 60s are the end of the road. But that timeline is no longer the only valid one. In fact, that timeline is no longer typical. Age is no longer the primary factor that determines where you are on the map. Life is now less about how old you are and more about when you decide to live.... Regardless of your age or station in life, it all comes down to one simple truth: you just have to start." (Start., Pages 24-25)

Start. by Jon Acuff, left, and Breakout! by Joel Osteen

That realization made a big impression, so much so that I submitted my resignation and left the health science center six weeks later in May. Through Joel, Jon, family, friends and other supporters, I am truly blessed. I'd like to give testimony that whatever your dreams, your hopes, your goals, NEVER give up. It may take a week, a month, a year -- more than four years. But run your race, and don't stop 'til you cross the finish line.

Yep. God threw us a curve, and we hit it out of the (AT&T) Park. Til the next time...