It’s Overwhelming to Relocate

I’ve been thinking about relocating for a long time. Years really. I moved to the town in which I live for two reasons. My mother, who lived with me at the time, wanted to move home. The town where I live is my home town. Second, my job was in this town. I had commuted for years and I was tired. Full disclosure. I didn’t want to move back to the town I had called home the first twenty years of my life. But there was my mom to consider. There was my job to consider. So I had a house built and I moved.

I found something out the hard way. You can’t go home again. Yes, I know it’s a cliche. I had been gone 25 years. I had changed. My friends had changed. The town had changed. I had one family member left in my hometown – my mother. She passed away two years after we moved.

I still had my job to consider. So I stayed in my hometown although I told my husband that I wanted to move when I retired. He agreed. I retired six years ago. We still live in my hometown.

There is nothing at all wrong with my hometown. The problem is simple. I don’t fit in there anymore. In some ways, I never did. I really don’t now. It is a perfectly nice small town in a beautiful area. But, for some reason, it’s just not “my place in the world.” In the 25 years I was gone, I learned to like things my hometown doesn’t offer.  I have forever friends in my hometown and they will always be just that – forever. We’re all different now and although I love to see them, I need to be in a place where I’m comfortable and happy. I found that place several years ago.

We finally decided to move. Our initial plan was to sell our house and move, bag and baggage, to the place that we found and love. We knew it would be hard, that finding real estate would be a challenge. We didn’t know how much of a challenge until we talked to a realtor in our most desirable place. We need to be in our place as soon as desirable property comes on the market because property sells almost immediately. We weren’t quite sure what to do.

Then we saw a small (tiny) place come on the market. An older couple had decided to sell their winter home as one of them is ill. They were selling it at bargain basement prices. It is not somewhere that we want to live forever, but for awhile, it will do just fine. We went to look at it, loved it for our purposes now, and bought it immediately.

Our plan now is to spend six months in our new place each year and six months in our current home. We’re moving to South Florida and we aren’t yet sure we want to be here during hurricane season, just in case. We feel really lucky because this will give us a chance to see if we like South Florida and want to live here full-time.

Lucky is not the only way I feel. I feel completely overwhelmed. I recognize that the way I feel is probably normal. Figuring out how to live in one place six months of the year and another place the other six months and they are 1100 miles apart has to be a bit difficult. What makes it more difficult is that our six months in Florida each year will not be consecutive.

One thing I know for sure. I’m not going to be here in the most likely hurricane months. It is frightening to me to think about our little place here so close to the coast. I know that I can’t  leave anything here that I consider valuable. I’m sure I’ll get used to living so near the Florida coast and less conscious of the hurricane potential!

Living in two places means having duplicates of everything and I’m not talking about housewares. I mean two doctors, two dentists, two pharmacies….you get the picture. I will be complex at first to get everything situated. We will need another automobile here.

Life will change and become quite a bit more complicated. I was ready for a change. All of these things that seem to be obstacles will work themselves out with our help. I am excited about my new life!