life
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ruth Barry, 42, a baker and writer living in Berlin. It has been edited for length and clarity. Loading audio narration… In 2014, I moved to Berlin, where I met my husband, another expat, at a party.The city was exciting, and…
When I moved from California to Spain in 2019, I knew my life would change — but I didn’t expect how deeply it would shift the way I moved through the world. Loading audio narration… During my first few weeks as a language assistant, a Spanish teacher I worked with…
I’m writing this for anyone under the spell of the digital nomad highlight reel, and for my younger self, who confused suffering with adventure. This is the story of when I stopped asking, “Where should I go next?” and started asking, “What do I need to thrive?” Loading audio narration……
Last year, my nervous system felt like it was always in survival mode. I’d just moved to Seattle for work, leaving most of my friends in sunny California. Loading audio narration… Seattle winters, meanwhile, are known for being rainy and gloomy rather than snowy. The sun would set around 5…
Jeanne Calment was the oldest verified person to have ever lived, passing away at 122. She was born in 1875, just a decade after the US Civil War ended, and died in 1997, a year before Google launched.Despite Calment’s extraordinary longevity, her home country, France, ranks just outside the top…
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rei Onoda, 34, coowner of Kamijyoan, a bakery in rural Japan. Her words have been edited for length and clarity. Loading audio narration… After graduating from university, I moved to Dubai and worked as a cabin crew member for Emirates for…
My grandmother has always been a storyteller; it came naturally to her as a school librarian. Loading audio narration… For her, books were a way to make places feel real before she could ever visit them. Growing up, she didn’t have much money for travel, so when she finally went…
My early attempts at exercising and diets to improve my appearance were always short-lived. Try something new, get no visible results, give up, repeat. I assumed that my regular yoga practice and eating fresh, home-cooked food didn’t count. Loading audio narration… I began to notice comments revolving around my age…
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Katie Loftin, 33, and Phill Jackson, 34, a couple who share an apartment in Dallas and have separate bedrooms. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Loading audio narration… Loftin: As a woman, there’s often pressure to follow a…
I sat in a stiff chair next to my 86-year-old dad as a lawyer outlined the complicated rules of Medicaid law. Loading audio narration… My dad furrowed his brow, trying to understand the legal complexities that could mean the difference between being able to leave his home — where he’d…
