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The Right Choice Originally published in U Magazine Winter/Spring 1998 Some people choose to leave the Fargo-Moorhead area because they are drawn to the appeal of the big city, while others leave for a job opportunity as Gregg Gess did. Gregg, a Moorhead native, left the area to find a job in his field. After graduating from Concordia College, he moved to Minneapolis, Minn., to take a job at a small bank. "At that time the job market was really tight (in Fargo). They were saying it was the worst job market in 20 years at the placement offices. And I ended up finding a job through a placement agency down in the Cities," he says. After living in Minneapolis for two years, Gregg and his wife, Stephanie, started to feel unsafe. "We had some arrests and attempted rapes that took place outside our building or in our neighbor-hood...My wife didn't feel safe there," Gregg says. They were faced with the dilemma of living in Minneapolis, where it was more affordable and the drive to work was only a few minutes, or moving to a suburb where it was safer, more expensive and the commute was 30 to 40 minutes. Their perspective started to change as they started thinking of how life was in Fargo. Since Gregg was working for a smaller bank, the opportunities were somewhat limited and he became open to looking for a new job. "I had a friend that worked at Community First (in Fargo) and every once in a while, he'd shoot me a newspaper ad. They had an opening posted one day and it just happened to be on one of the right days where I was a little frustrated with things," he says. On a whim, he sent a résumé and was called for an interview before he even had a chance to tell his wife he had applied for the job. He was offered the job and couldn't turn it down. "If that opportunity had existed before I left, I undoubtedly would have taken it then. Opportunity presented itself a couple years later and it was the right one for me, so I took it," Gregg says. Gregg is now at Norwest Bank in Fargo, and is satisfied with their decision to move back. "It's great. The business community is great, and I'm 10 minutes from work. I enjoyed the Cities, but life is simpler. You don't have the commutes, but you still have everything - the RedHawks games, Bison games and concerts at the FargoDome. You have a lot of the things that we had in the Cities, but on a smaller scale. It's easier. There's no doubt about it," Gregg says. He feels now that he's moved back to Fargo-Moorhead he has a different perspective on things. "I live here because I choose to. And I choose to because I like it." U
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