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I've lived in the San Fernando Valley all of my 26 years. Mainly Van Nuys when it was good, then Encino and now Lake Balboa. I went to the same school since I was like 11, until I graduated at 18. I don't want to say I hated it, but I wish it was different. I can't wait to finish college and move. Everytime I leave Los Angeles, or Cali I feel great and become more and more optomistic about leaving it all behind for a change. I can't imagine living here ALL my life, how boring. Unless maybe I can travel more, but I doubt I'd like it any better.
I'm one of the few in "nowadays" terms. I'm 3rd generation So. Californian.
I was brought home from the hospital and lived in the same house until I got married and moved out. I've only lived in 2 places other than my original house and still, I live very close to that house now.
However, I've traveled extensively and enjoy doing that. But so far, there's been no other place that has "spoken to me" and made me want to move there. Pretty happy and content where we live.
Would I liked to have moved more? Nope. It's not that I hate moving because we're the type of people that only own things we always use. If we had to move tomorrow, we'd have nothing to throw out, etc. It's just that I enjoy living where we do. But I'll continue ot travel and love the adventure of that, yet still love coming home to where we are.
I swore I would NEVER live here again...don't know why I said that, but I did. I have bigger things I wanted to do and Richmond was far to "provencial" for my dreams
That "never" word... dangerous, huh?! OK, I'm NOT saying I'll never get married again.
I have lived in countless places since I was 18 months old and by the time I was 7 years old had lived on 4 continents. I have attended numerous schools and moved homes a zillion times. This pattern has also continued into adulthood and I have often wondered what it would have been like to have grown up in the same house, in the same town, attended the same school and just had a less nomadic life.
When I hear of people who still live in their home town and even married their high school sweet hearts I often wonder if I would have liked that...then I think of the wealth of experience, the insights I have gained and the life I have because of my past I think I'm lucky to have had it, but a part of me still thinks what if....
So dudes and dudesses what's it like? Would you have things different? I've had glimpses of it vicariously through lives of some people I've known.
For a moment I thought this was an old post of mine,it sounds just like me
I used to kind of want to be like those people too but then I'd probably be bored because I'm just not like that.
Lived in Wisconsin my whole life(hubby too). 4 1/2 years ago we moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, hubby got a job promotion. If we had to do it again, there would be no way we would move from HOME(especially here). We miss it terrribly. My parents still live in the house I grew up in. They moved there when I was 1(39 now).
We are a 3 1/2-4 hour ride home. We don't get to go as often anymore. We are planning a trip back the first week of November. We haven't been home since the beginning of June. This will be the first time in the 4 years we lived here that we won't be able to go home for Christmas. This kills me.
Hopefully within the next year we will be able to move back for good. Wisconsin will always be home to us. Don't know what ya got till it's gone...
I've always moved around...the longest stay I've had was in NYC for almost a decade, and from there I ended up here in El Paso, where I met a wonderful man who has lived here all his life. It still amazes me how different our lives have been...he's still friends with people he's known since CHILDHOOD, and there are A LOT of them! (I manitained contact with 1 childhood friend, and the others I still talk to are mostly from college)...I never was a clingy type, and I always enjoyed doing my own thing, so I guess that's why I'm glad I haven't been stuck in one place this whole time. There are moments when I think it would have been nice to have such strong connections with so many people, but in the end I suppose it kind of baffles me...some of these people have nothing interesting or positive to contribute to a conversation, but they remain in the loop just because he's known them forever. Though we're both in our 30's, these "friends" just show up at his house whenever they want to (he used to be a party animal, though he's been sober for 6 years now...) don't even call to see if it's convenient, and stay as long as they want to. So things can get "too comfortable" when u live somewhere all your life...he's realizing how much of a nuisance it is now, and has started telling his friends to call first, and is ignoring the door if no phone call has been received...I guess it took being with someone who's not from here to realize how rude that behavior really is!!!
[quote=lionking;5701393]Maybe it is just that I need to get it out of my system but shedding (or at least putting in storage) my items and just carrying what I can in a backback and just wondering the world for a year or 2 would be awesome.
We place burdens on ourselves by material desires (Im guilty) and get into a grind to pay for them,TV's,houses,cars,bills,hobbies whatever then become owned to them,because otherwise we loose them.
Having nothing but what you could carry would be a experience of shedding all that and no worries about it because you don't have them!Wherever you would go there would be a way to find a place to eat and sleep.Of course we aren't talking luxury hotels because then money is needed and you become owned to that.
Just finished reading Tales of a Female Nomad. The author did just that (at middle-age) on little money.
If you plan it it's doable. One of my clients and her husband took a gap year in 2006 for a year. They are 30 something professionals who rented out their home to a friend who also cared for their cats while they were gone. They spent most of the year travelling through South America. The husband took a sabbatical and had his job open for him when he came back. Obviously luxury go's out of the window and its back to basics, it's easy to eat cheap, find cheap hostels and for the young having a host family cuts back on some expenses.
I would LOVE to do this. If my DH could get off for a while (which he can't) I would be packed and ready to leave tomorrow.
I have moved a LOT. Five times by the time I was 12 within England. Then at 14 I went to boarding school overseas. Moved again for my final year of boarding school and then back to the UK (different city) for college. One year overseas during college (same country I went to boarding school).
Moved to London when I graduated, spent 6 months on the road in England, then to Holland for a year for work. Back to London for another year and a half, then back to Holland again.
From Holland to the US where we lived in the same city for 5 years, but moved house 5 times in those 5 years.
Now we have just moved to Philadelphia.
So 4 different countries and many, many different cities and towns.
I am about ready to settle down for a while, and I love Philadelphia so far, so this may be the place to do it.
The biggest downside is the inevitable cooling off of friendships after you've been gone a few years. There are some I still miss.
But there are also great rewards. I feel so lucky to have been able to see so much of the world and experienced different countries. I have also met many wonderful people, each of whom has left an enduring impression on me.
I know it sounds juvenille, but Facebook has been an invaluable tool in reconnecting with old friends from all over the world. It's fantastic, as I now chat regularly with people who I might otherwise never have spoken to again. It's a great tool for nomads like me.
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OK, I'm NOT saying I'll never get married again.
