Why do we stay where we are? We used to be a nomadic species, has that been broken from our spirit, our wood and stone abodes enough to tether us where we reside. I write this as a coworker gets ready to leave due to husband getting a promotion. She was with our current group a little longer than myself, so approaching twenty years. I hear husband got a great deal, so it is hard to turn down, I say go for it.
So then the rest of us just remain where we are because that is where we have always been? I moved to Austin in 1991 to come to UT, I thought it a great time in my life, packed my waterbed in the back of my Ranger and vamoose, don't look back, time to make my way in life. I am on my second house, have a nice career, wife, Boy, Chubs, perfect little family package. My mom still brings up just about every time we talk for more than five minutes, "so uh, you ever think of moving back home?" I got the speech from my sister just over the Christmas break, two weeks ago. The answer is no. We don't go out much, but if I feel like running to my mistress, the mall, I can head there any time. If we get real adventurous we can even go to the lake, or Schlitterbahn or countless other things. I enjoy my stressful life.
My brother, Mr. Attorney, came up to Austin, lived with me for two years and we had some good times. We'd play disc golf, even got him a summer job when I worked at the warehouse. As soon as he graduated, well he went to law school, but soon after, was back home. He bought the house next door to mama. That is going back home. Mom couldn't be happier. My sister also came up to Austin for a year or so, but soon went back home, they decided it would be easier to have a family back where family would be around for support. She bought the lot behind my parent's house and built a new house there. My other brother stayed away the longest, lived with me in two separate blocks of time for about five years, but he too is now back home. A nomadic tribe we are not.
We go to Corpus Christi every summer, we have an RV, park it out there at an RV park and come and go as we please. We talk about moving down there, I was born there, is our only connection. I like the beach, but honestly, sometimes we go down, and don't even make it to the water. I guess I could look for a job at the refineries, and I did when I was looking for a job initially, but I am now comfortable in what I do. I am left alone, for the most part, which I like.
When we've gone to Disney in Florida, it is so clean and "magical", my wife and I start discussing the idea of living down there. The reality is it is a vacation destination, it's supposed to be better than home, and it appears to be, but I don't trust that. Florida is for sunburns and amusement parks, not jobs in cutting edge technology sectors. I couldn't go down there and work for the mouse, some minimum wage job, no thanks. But we do love going down there.
We've had one friend actually flee. She just started talking about moving, two weeks before she left she still didn't know where she was going, but they did it. Sold everything, jumped in their cars and hit the road. I think that is so brave and so stupid, at the same time. To just leave everyone you know behind takes an adventurers spirit, and to land in a brand new place, with kids, and re-establish some semblance of roots, takes more guts than I have. These people didn't even have a job they were going there for. But they are over a year into their adventure, I still don't know what the gain in doing it was, but I guess some people still have nomad's blood.
Their daughter had stayed behind, was going to school, just got back from meeting them up there for five days. She's got the itch to move, not with her mom, to New York, or maybe even Florida. This kid has grown up pretty much in our house, she asks for my advice in everything or I give it to her anyway, and I think it is scarier for a girl to move along by herself, but maybe it will work out. She's not going to school anymore, and there is no boyfriend, so it'll be interesting to see if she too can make it out of a comfort zone, to search for who knows what.
From my perspective, most people rarely move. My family back home all still live pretty much where they have always lived. I guess it goes to maybe being comfortable. If you are comfortable, why change anything? The only reason we moved to a second house was that our first one seemed too small when Chubs came along. I felt like I was suffocating in our first house. It is a fine little house, and we keep it in case I ever lose my job, my wife could afford that mortgage and carry me, for awhile. But I love my current house, and I just can't think I would move, unless I could find an affordable waterfront property, fifteen minutes from my work. Maybe the continuing drought will make the rich people around our lakes uncomfortable and they will flee....
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