"Life over seven-plus years between graduation and that night on the Capitol steps wasn’t misery by any means. Eventually whatever nagging sense I had that I should be somewhere else became bearable, the same way ear hair starts as something you never considered you’d ever encounter on your own body and eventually becomes part of who you are."

What do you do if you’re in your early 30s with a resume full of bad work history and romantic failures, living a life of squandered privilege in “the place” for someone of the local faith?

If you’re Steven Gardner, you go to a place high on a hill overlooking the Salt Lake Valley to confirm that the view you’re currently seeing is something you’d rather have in your rearview mirror. You decide the best way to stand out in a crowd is to reduce the size of the crowd.

You choose to move to Oregon.

What you learn: Utah was not the problem, but Oregon was the solution.