During my short time at the airlines i lived in base, commuted, made captain, bought a house, got married, got downgraded, sold a house, moved back to my hometown (which was my base), and became a super junior FO with the possibility of a domicile displacement, luckily i was far enough up the list to not have to worry about a furlough.

I left the airlines 4 months ago for "greener pastures". Went from a 3rd year FO pay rate of 33/hr (TSA) to 54k/yr salary (still not as much as i made as a TSA CA). The only downer is that i no longer fly airplanes, but truth be told, the only parts of flying airplanes that i miss are takeoffs and landings, the rest was essentially filler to get you to the destination, and even the most interesting FO's or CA's aren't that fun to talk to for hour after hour after hour. I do miss a couple of the overnights (but the company took the good ones away before i even left...aka, Savannah (on the golf course), Moline (downtown rock island), Philly (back when we were downtown), etc. My current job at the desk is not overly interesting, infact, it's boring as heck most of the time, but, I no longer feel the stresses of (will we go on strike, will the company sell us out to gojet, will I pass this next checkride, will the feds violate me over something i overlooked, will i make it to the majors, will i get furloughed once i get there, will i get displaced, will i upgrade again, etc....all in all, those were causing a lot of gray hairs, and i think "for me" i've made the better decision. Anyway, it's 5:30 in the morning, and i should get to work...