aging

Growing up, I always told my parents I was never getting married or having kids. It was a blow to them, because I’m an only child and they were really looking forward to being grandparents.Fast forward many decades, and I met my now-husband, who changed my mind. I saw him…

I’ve always felt most at home in or around the water. Sometimes that meant swimming laps in a gym pool with waterproof headphones on and music in my ears. Other times, it looked like floating on a raft in my suburban New Jersey backyard pool on a summer afternoon, or…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Thomas Phillips, 33, a business owner from Southampton, England, who left the UK in 2024 and now lives in Austin, Texas, while running his SEO agency. Phillips is on a E-2 Investor Visa. The following has been edited for length and…