Nomad or Wanderer 2

 

Certain places settle the mind and calm the humming anxiety to keep moving, at least for a while. There have been places where I've felt satisfied and remained for longer than the normal stint of 6-9 months. Those places suited my life at that point and I still look back fondly at their attributes and charms but when I consider being there now, they don't seem realistic or overly attractive. The pull of one location at one time may be the thing the pushes me away now. Once I feel I've learned the core capabilities and make up of a place, it's usually time to move on. Some are shallow and easy to learn. Others are deeper and more complex.

There are places I've lived where I could picture myself staying and enjoying but then again, there are so many other places I haven't been that seem interesting. Which evokes the question: where is a desirable place to settle for a while? Which things from different places fit into what's needed in one's life? Obviously, it's an individual thing (or at least it should be). For me, it's always changing.

When you consider the definition of "places"you need to figure out whether you're speaking of towns, cities, regions, even countries. For instance, I like New England in general but I don't like NYC. I like Asheville but not the Southeast (in general). You also need to think about other geographical distinctions like mountains, desert, ocean, forest, jungle, or plains (some people actually like plains - go figure). And then there's the demographic makeup of a place. Is it representative of the majority of the country or is it very different like Detroit 83% black or Grand Junction with less than 1% black or Miami, Dade County 66% Hispanic? There are pockets of wealth and (much larger) pockets of, let's say, struggling populations, both of which generally facilitate one dimensional environments that seem to ostracize (indirectly or directly) other socioeconomic groups.

Which type of experience are you interested in? Personally, I enjoy diversity mostly because it's easy to lose touch with reality in terms of understanding and accepting other cultural lifestyles. People tend to have a herd mentality and it seems they start acting like each other, even looking like each other(!) in homogeneous communities, so it's nice to have wide variety wherever you live, but that's just my opinion (like everything else I write here). You simply cannot understand or know a town, city, region, people, etc. without living there for a while. Spending two weeks in a place won't do it. From experience, it takes at least six months to fully grasp a place and its people.

Life can be complicated enough, so I can understand the desire to settle in one place and focus on the important things. Living in the bubble of daily routine gives a sense of stability and comfort in the familiarity and predictability. I have attention deficit disorder, for sure. After all these years, I've only recently realized it. It's the only thing that explains the anxiety I have at the thought of being one place or doing one thing for any length of time. I'm a terrible office employee and have trouble staying focused on one project unless it's incredibly challenging and dynamically changing constantly. So, a daily routine lasting longer than a few months makes my skin crawl. Heck, I have trouble sitting through a movie without getting antsy wanting to do something else, so how can I be expected to remain stationary in one city or town? Enough of the possible psychosis of why I wander, might return to it later.