moved
In 2020, I unwittingly moved to Australia on what was supposed to be a temporary trip lasting a few months. Instead of studying abroad for a semester and heading back to the Philly suburbs with some stories and a tan, I stayed for another six years.Now, I’m a permanent resident…
The drive-thru line at Chick-fil-A stretched around the block, packed with oversized SUVs at 10 a.m. on a Tuesday. Engines idled.No one honked. No one seemed in a hurry. It was one of my first glimpses of life in Wichita, and it felt like a different world.I had just finished…
My partner and I had always dreamed of having our own small space on wheels so we could live simply and have a flexible lifestyle.So, in 2019, we began building our very own tiny home on a 32-foot trailer. After many months (and YouTube tutorials), it was complete.For a while,…
I moved to Paris from the United Kingdom in 2017, and while I expected some challenges along the way, I was surprised to discover that many of the things I’d been worrying about turned out not to be issues at all.However, in their place were several other unforeseen obstacles that…
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with William Swanson, a 22-year-old working in medical sales who moved to New York in June. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.I had just graduated from college and was moving from Massachusetts to New York for a job starting…
During a recent visit to New York, my boyfriend and I struck up a conversation with a bartender at our hotel. Upon mentioning where we were visiting from, we were met with a jovial “Wow, you two live in Puerto Rico? What’s life like in paradise?”It’s a sentiment that I’ve…
I sat on my gray couch in my California home, surrounded by plain white walls and a fiddle-leaf fig plant. Before turning on Netflix, I grabbed my phone, clicked on the heart icon, and checked my step count for the day.On an ideal day, I’d have at least 10,000 steps…
When my husband and I bought our house in 2019, the real-estate agent knew the house two doors down from us would eventually be up for sale.My husband and I joked that his parents would buy it when it was.Two years later, it was listed — and they did (after…
Seven months ago, I left Canada after living in Ottawa my entire life.When my apartment lease was coming to an end, I knew I didn’t want to make another expensive yearlong commitment in the only city I’d ever lived in — especially as the cost of living kept rising.I’d visited…
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Shrutinder Kaur, 35, who is from India and lives in Ontario. The following has been edited for length and clarity.I met my husband online, but not on a dating app.In early 2014, I searched Facebook for the man my dad was…
