moved
I found home in a person before I found it in a place. In January 2017, I met my now-husband — a 6-foot-3 Indo-Fijian man with kind eyes and a deep, soothing voice — on Bumble in Canada.At the time, I was a New Yorker living in Toronto temporarily. I…
Six months ago, my husband and I uprooted our lives, moving to a little town on the coast and away from the metropolis of Johannesburg, where I spent the last 32 years. Hermanus, South Africa (my new home) is small — a population of 100,000, compared to Johannesburg’s 6 million.In…
“Why are you taking my picture?” asked my 22-year-old son as I trailed behind him on a hiking path near our house. The leaves were beginning to change, and I wanted to capture the beauty of the woods and this moment with my adult son.”Because I love you,” I told…
Two things prompted my move from Michigan to Colorado in 2017: the mountains and a tight-knit group of friends that loved the outdoors as much as I did.As a 20-something hiker who couldn’t get enough trail time, my hometown started to feel stifling, like the state lines were confining my…
Growing up outside Boston, I loved the city’s arts and culture scene. Loading audio narration… Spending weekends in bookstores and thrift shops, hunting for unique vintage clothes, made me feel cosmopolitan — worlds away from my homogenous suburb. As a queer kid, that was a lifeline.In fact, I loved this…
When I found myself on a first-name basis with the local paramedics, I knew I needed to face the truth: my dad couldn’t continue living at home. It was only a matter of time before the minor emergencies that the EMTs were responding to became something major. Loading audio narration……
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…
The break came suddenly. After 24 years together, my husband told me he wanted to explore his bisexual side. It had always been an open relationship, but when he started dating a woman seriously, my heart broke. He fell in love. Loading audio narration… For my 50th birthday in October,…
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…
