It can be hard to pick up your stakes, pack up, and leave your old life behind. There are some good solid reasons to do so.
People look at the mismatch between where jobs and people are. The logical thing is for the unemployed to move where the jobs are. That’s not easy to do if you are already broke. Unless you have an in-demand job like a doctor or other medical professional getting a new job can be difficult. Even a lot of on-line jobs require physical interviews before you can be considered. That can be a pain if you are living in West Virginia and the job is based in California. For regular run of the mill low paying jobs it’s often not worth the move.
Where are you going to live? Somehow you need to scrap up enough money in advance to get even a basic apartment. If you don’t have a job your potential landlord will probably decide to not be your landlord. Of course, getting a job while living in a refrigerator box down by the tracks is no mean feat.
Getting a job is just one of the more common reasons for leaving. Sometimes people leave for their health. I knew someone who moved from Maine to Florida because her health issues were impossible in cold weather. Down south she could live a nearly normal life.
Someone close to me almost moved due to a potential legal issue. This person had no resources to fight unfair charges against their kid. They were going to just disappear rather than face a day in court without a good lawyer. In the end the charges were dropped but they were ready to leave.
A buddy of mine became friends with some Afghan refugees who escaped the country on one of the last flights out. The family had about a million dollars in jewels hidden away in their luggage. At the last second the US military made the decision to not allow luggage on the plane so more people could be squeezed in.
Imagine having to leave a million dollars behind. While it’s tough to do, it beats getting killed by the Taliban.
There’s an old Chinese saying that in a long life one can expect to abandon one’s worldly possessions at least three times. The man who said that lived in very turbulent time in China’s History with many warring kingdoms. Still, it’s something to keep in mind. In the end it’s just stuff.
Then again, sometimes people get rid of their stuff and hit the road just for the adventure.
-Sixbears
Many people make the mistake of becoming obsessed with their 'stuff'. So obsessed that they don't own the stuff....the stuff owns them.
ReplyDeleteTrue enough.
DeleteI just effectively walked out of my old life. The wife decided she loved her hobbies more than me, so I dropped everything and moved cross country to where I wanted to live.
ReplyDeleteI looked at each item I owned and asked "Is this worth dragging 3000 miles?" The answer was generally "no". Only things with high sentimental value made the journey.
If anyone cares, I moved to where the grandkids are. The ex thought seeing them once every 5 to 7 years was more than sufficient. I get to see them far more frequently.
Sounds like a good move. I've a friend who's been in a loveless marriage for years but is stuck because he doesn't want to give up some money. He wants to do other things but I bet he never will as he's in his mid-60s.
DeleteLife is an adventure. You're born, you get stuff, you loose stuff, you get more stuff, then you die.
ReplyDelete. . . and sometimes there's good coffee.
DeleteI grew up in NH, went away to college but moved back shortly after that with a young lady from NY city that I met at college. I worked several jobs and lived several places in NH but always within driving distance of where I was born. Took a job as a caretaker on an 80 acre estate on Big Squam Lake and worked as well as an electrician's apprentice.
ReplyDeleteI took a job with a company that serviced the sawmill industry and became their cutting tools expert. I married the young lady from college and we had two children.I was offered an opportunity to open a new branch for the company in Upstate New York. That began a life filled with a series of job related moves and with each move there was the decision of which stuff to bring.
After two years with the branch up and running I was recruited by a west coast company to call on saw mills in Oregon so off we went to the west coast. Two years later the spotted owl fiasco shut down a majority of the mills in Oregon so the company transferred me to the Seattle area to take over their manufacturing facility which was a union run shop.
After 7 years the company which had been family run was sold out to a large multi national corporation. Not wnating to be just another spoke in the wheel we packed up an dmoved to SC where I started a manufacturing company with two partners. Having to relocate across country in a U Haul truck there were big decisions on what to take with us.
Two years later we sold our new fledgling company to a different multi national company and as part of the deal we moved to upper/lower MI on a 5 year contract to start up production on the line of saw mill saw blades that we made.
After the 5 year contract was fulfilled I had an offer in 2007 to move to NC and take over as Operations Manager for a manufacturing company there. In 2010 with the company in trouble from the 2008 crisis my partner and I acquired the company from the German ownership. In 3 years we had turned the company around. In 2016 we sold the company to the junior management team.
My wife and I retired to a homestead in the mountains of NC at the end of a gravel mountain road that same year, We continue to work on becoming more self sufficient as time goes by. Each move had its challenges with decisions of what to bring and what to leave behind.
Each move turned out to be a step up for us and we got to live in some beautiful areas of the country, NH will always have a special place in my heart. The west coast was too liberal even back when we lived there but beautiful country and some good decent people. SC was too hot for us and MI was too cold where it snowed sideways in the winter as storms traveled off one lake heading towards another. The NC mountains we see 4 seasons but it in general is not too hot or too cold. Life is what you make of it all.
Quite the adventure. Thanks for sharing. The NC mountains are pretty nice. Similar in some ways to the mountains of NH but with a more moderate climate. Good folks in them parts too. On of my daughter's lived in the Asheville area for a while with her husband. My lovely wife and I enjoyed camping in the mountains.
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