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I love your post 124c41. I to have move all over, and now I have came back to my home
where my family lives. but feeling restless, and thinking about moving again. but now I thinking it me, and not the places I lived.
It seems each day I agree more, and more,with the old adage that " Home is where the heart is."
Maybe home is more a feeling of completeness in one's heart than just satisfaction in a place?
I would love to find a place that feels like "this is it". Never have. I think it maybe has more to do with me, not sure. I'm fiercely independent and analytical, always with my own viewpoints and not smart enough to just 'go along' to fit in. I just don't often relate.
When I lived in Omaha for a few years I felt the closest to that in some ways, most of that stock is long time German, european farmer lines which is my own parents (who come from a people of itchy feet, Germans from Russia). The people in some ways felt familiar and comfortable which I don't get in Ohio and Michigan. I think there is more more an Appalachian emigration cultural input in Southern Ohio/MI. Northern MI early was trappers, loggers, hunters, different folk than farmers.
Unfortunately I didn't particularly care for that true midwestern plains geography. Topography? The wind mostly, drove me nuts. That and lack of rivers and lakes.
Interesting question - and all the more so since I see you're in Philadelphia, a place I keep meaning to visit, imagining I'd like it a lot. It's a difficult question, because if you try to read up about a place, the chances are it'll be written with a PR slant.
I figured that one practical approach would be to do a three-week vacation in varied cities, and see what it feels like. By the way, are you aware that Money magazine (I think) does periodic cover stories on the best places to live? Also the Best Places website used to have a survey to fill out that would tell you places that matched your basic preferences.
I am retiring to Eastport Maine where I spent a lot of my early childhood, I could have stayed in Lebanon Ohio which used to be a nice small farm town in the middle of nowhere over 40 years ago, but in recent years the developers have over run the area putting up cookie cutter subdivisions every where they could and ruined the area. There is more noise, litter, traffic and crime. Eastport Maine for the most part looks the same as it did years ago.
My family is from deep East Texas, and we owned the old family farm. I sold it as I have no inclination to ever return there. I grew up in northeast Texas, but don't ever go back for high school reunions. Lived in a suburb of Dallas for almost 30 years, but it was never 'home' just a place we lived. Wife and I have now moved to SW Florida. And this feels more like 'home' than any place we have lived, even though we have not lived here long.
This is truly a fascinating post. I've lived around the midwest mostly, and returned to my birth state where I left after High School. We came to where we are for good schools and low cost, but it does feel like you can't go home again. The place is a bit hostile based on what I remember, and it has me itching to find something else. I have that nagging feeling that I'm kind of wasting time, though I am using it well for my career, so it's not a total loss. If the kids were ready, I have the feeling I'd lay tracks.
Restrain, what is it about SW Florida that feels so right? Can you quantify it? I'm not trying to move next door and bug you, just interested in the things that ease that wanderlust...
I used to say that I had gypsy in my blood because just about every 2 years or so I got that itch. I just felt like it was time to move on. I moved here, I moved there. Then I finally found my home state-and it is not the state that I grew up in. Moved around the state a bit but I have no desire to live outside this state. It is home. And I think I finally found the RIGHT house-just not too sure about the town.
This thread is awesome! I love all the different generations weighing in on their experiences moving around and finding or not finding home.
I too thought I could go home and moved back to my home state near my home town three years ago. I have a little bit of family left here, but not much. My folks retired and sold the family home and moved away about 15 years ago. My husband and I lived in that same state (SC) for 9 years while we got second college degrees, finished college, started careers and a family. We never felt like it was home and thought that our home state would be better in the midwest. It has not been better. Old friends have moved on, some of the family that was here has moved away now and we don't seem to "fit" with the family that is here. It is SO frustrating. To top it all off the winter is killing our spirit slowly each year. I definitely get SAD and realize that's why I fled to FL after college and stayed in the south in the sunshine. I thought the heat was bad in the summers after being there for so long, but I had only forgotten how horrible I feel in the winter.
The partner thing is HUGE. My husband is resolute to stick by my side. I have the primary income and can take my job anywhere and he is an artist that works for himself. If it weren't for the kids we'd be packing right now, but we have to go about this move with more strategy than ever before because of schools and neighborhoods. I say if children are not in the mix and you have a partner and the itch then start exploring your options and saving. Find a place and try it.
I often find myself longing to go home and now that I know that I cannot I am trying to figure out what that feeling is about without a place attached to it. It is something in the heart of that I am sure. I just have to reign that in to be within my own realm and not dependent on anyone else. That is a trick I was not taught when I was young and it is hard to teach a middle aged lady new tricks.
Wyllyam, everyone is friendly here. We have met more neighbors here in the last 3 weeks than we ever met in Dallas. We pulled up with the first load on the back of a trailer, and our next door neighbors were helping unload almost before we got the trailer backed up to the door. The young man checking out our groceries took time to tie up the bags to keep the groceries from falling out.
Almost everyone here is from somewhere else and glad to be here. Even the people at the government offices are friendly and giving us hints and helps.
Port Charlotte, even though unincorporated, feels much more like a friendly home town than any other place we have lived.
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