Nomads

I think it was Legs Akimbo who made a comment some time ago that made me start thinking about whether I am a true nomad or if it's something else.

I've moved states twice in the US, towns 5 times in the US and one international move.  Not as much as some, but more than many.  I've never really thought that I was running away from things, much more that I was trying to move towards things.  You know, if you don't like it try to change it, first where you are, and then up and get onto someplace else.

When I think back to childhood, I was always jealous of my neighbors who moved.  I changed my bedroom furniture around constantly because I wanted something new.  The thing I'm most disgruntled about with my life as it is right now is that I'm tired of circulating in the same 4 mile radius.  I love nature, history, architecture, people - but I feel there is no new information to gain here.  The novelty of my immediate location has worn off.  Often I still enjoy the changeable things - the sky, the trees, the birds, and sometimes I am genuinely amazed that I live on an island so far away from where I was born.  But mostly I'm bored with it.  I've never been this bored this fast with anywhere I've lived.

So I'm NOT looking for analysis of WHY I think/feel what I feel.  My question to the board is, ARE YOU NOW or HAVE YOu EVER BEEN A NOMAD?  If you are, do you think it's your nature or are something else?  If you were and are now not, what made you finally settle down?  How do you know that you won't be ready to move on in the future?

I am pretty sure I have "nomadic tendencies", yeah.  At least I am aware of it.  My husband is the exact opposite.  He has lived on the same street for most of his life and is quite happy with that.  I think, for me, it is something that is just in my nature and cannot be changed, easily.  I am going to TRY to settle down for my husband, but I am not sure how it will go.  i have told my husband that I need to get out and see new things once in a while and I think he understands. 
I am pretty sure I will never feel "happily settled" anywhere and it is something I struggle with all the time!

I've never really thought of it this way...But yeah, I haven't really stayed in one place for too long.  Up until I graduated from high school, I had only lived in one house.  I know college is quite different from the "real world", but in the past ~4-5 years, I've lived in 5 cities, 2 states, and 2 countries...if I wanted to break it down even further, it includes 2 dorms, 1 apartment, 4 houses, and 2 flats.  (These only include places that I've lived for a minimum of 3 consecutive months)

I started rearranging furniture as a child; My mom would walk into my room and always be surprised as to what I had decided to do that weekend. When I moved into the house I'm living in now, my landlord/housemates were amazed at how little I had brought with me. (Just my bed, 2 suitcases, and 2 small duffels--which I thought was a lot!)

I think for me it's just about the adventure of it all. I love to "figure out" my new area, and probably won't settle until I've found one place that has so much to explore that I'll never get bored. I don't think I will fully settle down for another 5-10 years though, which I suppose makes me a nomad.  But I think I'll be able to settle once I find a place that truly has "everything"--that old town charm, nearby big green parks, local pubs, good proximity/transport to a major city, without too much of the "big city feel"....

I grew up as a nomad, having parents from two different continents. We moved around all the time. And I think that's what makes me now, as an adult, so determined to put down roots and establish myself in a community of my own. There are adventures to be found everywhere - even just around the corner. I feel no need to move halfway around to world to find excitement. Not that I don't love to travel. I do, but I always want to come back home again.

I've had nomadic tendencies throughout different periods of my life.  When I was a kid I also did the re-arrangeing of my bedroom furniture thing.  At one point I got rid of my bed except for a mattress on the floor.  I obsessed about "gypsies" (I know it's not the politically correct term, but back then I didn't know any better).

In the years after college I moved a lot, but it was always within the same city--just different areas.  I never even travelled abroad though until I was 32!  

More recently, in the year before I met my hubby I was very nomadic and loved it!  I spent 6 months in Ireland and the UK (I had given up my apartment and most of my stuff by this time), after I met hubby I was back and forth from the US to the UK for a year, staying at a friend's house while I was in the US.  By the end of this period though, I felt as though I were drifting without a real focus and I didn't like the unsettled feeling anymore--I was ready to settle down in the UK with my soon-to-be hubby.

But who knows?  I may feel nomadic again in the future, but now that I'm married, we'd both have to be feeling nomadic at the same time for it to work!