I am somewhat of an enigma for most of my friends back in the US. They don't seem to get me and my curiousity (obsession?) with other places and the need to constantly move. My life has always been about moving and the longest that I've lived in a single place has been 5 years; that was the place where I was born. Since 1975, my life has been about relocation every two years (or so) and its one of the constants that I have become accustomed to.
Recently I sent out an email to my friends telling about my adventures last year and describing what I had done over the last 12 months. Its something that I picked up from an old girlfriend when she was an expat. Its a good way to do a check-in with folks that I haven't heard from in a while and let them know that even though I am out of sight (or even out of country), that I am still thinking about them. If nothing else, it gives me a chance to update people on my most current email address.
After I sent out my last update (a coupla weeks ago), I got replies back from some of my friends. Some were excited at the prospect of me moving to Peru since it will give them a chance to visit the country and crash at my place. Others were hopeful that I would be able to stop in to see them before I headed to South America. And then there was a small contingent that wrote to me and wanted to know my motivation for moving. Why did I move so much? What is it that I am missing in my life that makes me continue to wander the planet in search of a home?
What great questions! I have no idea what the answers are to those questions and perhaps this is a sign that I need to seek professional counseling. Maybe its time for me to go lay down on someone's comfy couch and tell them all about my life, maybe then I could gain some insight as to why I am a 'wandering fool'. Most everyone else on the planet seems content with finding a home and staying relatively close to it for their entire life, so why don't I fit that mold? What makes me so afraid to commit to a place? Heck, maybe that would help to explain why I'm still single at my tender age of mid-30s. Maybe the time has come for my spiritual journey to begin and true enlightenment to occur. Perhaps if I were to live as a hermit in a high Nepalese village I could answer all these questions and more.
Sounds great. I'll get to it later. Maybe after Peru, maybe after the next place I live. And maybe therein lies the true answer - maybe I'm just procrastinating. :)
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2 comments:
Hey, expat.
Just because you move every couple of years doesn't mean you need a shrink.
Just because you aren't married by your thirties doesn't mean you need a shrink.
Perhaps others aren't questioning your lifestyle as much as you suppose. Perhaps you are comparing yourself to the "status quo", and therefore doubting your life choices?
Am I now sounding like a shrink?
You're minute's up.
That will be $40.
:-)
Girl - you're on crack.
;)
I don't doubt my life choices, I have made them and I am plenty happy. I made my bed and I don't mind laying in it.
As far as others questioning my lifestyle, they do in a way. You'd have to read the emails to see what they are getting at. But I don't care if they question it, they aren't living my life so they can piss off. :) How's that my shrink?
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