1994, my parents told me we're going to America for a vacation. I was pretty accustomed to traveling at this point since we flew to Latvia and western Russia once or twice a year to visit family. Guess where I am right now? Seriously, guess! If you guessed America, you're right! My parents lied to me. Oh well, not like I had much choice at that age. I used my parents' suv to move myself out to an apartment 25 miles from their house, and once again to move about a mile south closer to downtown Chicago. I've had it pretty easy. My brother, on the other hand, moved from Ohio to Florida with my help. 16 foot truck + car trailer = one big ass rig to be driving. We hired some movers to load the shit in for like 35 bucks in Toledo as to not ruin our backs and took off. A few adderalls, packs of cigarettes, and 5-hour energy drinks later, we arrived in Florida in 22 hours or so. Not a bad haul, either. He had a place/job/schooling all lined up, too, and no pets/wives/kids. Guess that's not too bad, either.
I've moved a lot because of my dad's job. It started with moving from Denmark to the Atlanta, when I was 3. Since then I've lived in Moscow, Vienna, Copenhagen, Edinburgh, Cambodia, Philippines, New York, Washington D.C., Seattle and now I moved away from home to Geneva. My mom is living in Basel and my dad commutes between Copenhagen and Washington D.C. What I got most from moving is that people all over are fairly similar. I've also discovered that it's not that important for me where I live. I can get along with people from almost every culture, and most cities are fairly similar in terms of what I end up doing. The Western countries are almost interchangeable. Of course, Cambodia and Philippines were quite different, because it's third world, but I've always ended up living in a similar way wherever I've lived.
I'm 25 days out from a road trip/move from California to Michigan. It will be my longest road trip to date, and I'm only bringing what will fit in my little bitty car. It should be lots of fun. However, I might be forced into a move-before-the-move. Our landlord is moving back into the house in order to sell it, so we have to be out by June 15, but he'll only charge us for the days in June that we're occupying the house. Unfortunately, my roommates are looking at new houses with leases starting as early as June 1, so I may very well be moving twice in the next 4 weeks. Barf.
I was born and raised in NJ. Almost three decades of the same state. In 2007, I had enough of NJ and moved to Seattle for a slight change of pace and because my severely bipolar mother lived out here and I wanted to try and forge a relationship with her, completely forgetting that she's batshit crazy and bipolar. With the exception of my job, I cannot adequately express my disdain for this place. The passive aggressive assholes, the lack of Italian food that isn't The Olive Garden, the shitty baseball games, the eight months of gray weather...I could go on and on. No joke, I mentioned at work how I never get thanked for holding a door or blessed when I sneezed and the woman that overheard me said with the most serious face "It's because we're afraid we're going to get shot!" Imagine that...someone with a gun is going to shoot your sorry ass because you were polite. Yeah. I never thought I'd be so fucking excited to move to the south. I'm counting down the days until we get out of here and into Atlanta. Well, that's kind of harsh. I can't say it's 100% bad. We have made some wonderful friends out here (99% of them are transplants) and we adopted our second cat that is just the chillest, most awesome cat, which we never would've gotten if we stayed on the east coast. Wow, that's sad. Friends and a feline. Yeah, I'm ready to go back east now.
Alt-Focus: Under no circumstance should you move to Scranton, PA. One thing The US Office does well is show how utterly idiotic the people here are. I'm not saying everyone is stupid, but there are A LOT of assholes. For example, the alleged pedophile joke they made last episode is true. There was a male teacher who got arrested for sexually harassing high school boys. Better yet, the only time you should even visit Scranton is the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day. It's called Parade Day and the police pretty much stop giving a shit about public drunkenness for the day. Also, bagpipes.
I lived in south Atlanta (Stone Mountain) for the first twelve years of my life. My dad grew up there, my grandparents still lived in the same house they'd had since the early seventies, so while the area is quite rundown and "ghetto" now, I was used to being in the racial minority and relatively comfortable with it. The summer between seventh and eighth grade, I visited friends in Kennesaw, north of metro Atlanta. The house next door was for sale, and I suggested that my parents check it out on a whim. They did. They put in an offer. The deal fell through before closing. They found another house in a nearby neighborhood. They bought it. We spent every weekend from closing until Christmas painting and wallpapering. The deal was that I could finish out middle school in Stone Mountain and live with my grandparents in the meantime while my parents and sister settled into the new house. I pissed my mother off with a bad grade and a bad attitude, and that deal fell through as well. I was forced to move from my nice little ghetto city to the whitewashed suburbs of West Cobb before the school year was out. While I appreciate the switch now (I met my best friend in that one semester in Cobb middle school, and we went to different high schools, so we likely wouldn't've met had I not been forced to switch early), I was bitter and absolutely terrified of going to a new school. It was like my first day of school for the third time, only I was at an age where kids are cliqueish and legitimately mean. Cue the beginning of my "freak" phase - skater shoes, ball chain necklaces, and lots of black clothing and JNCOs. As for absolutely horrible places to live, Stone Mountain is up there. I'd rather stay here in Shanghai by myself than go back there. Its descent into filth is just depressing.
I've lived in most of New England, but really haven't lived outside of it (besides NJ). Massachusetts: I've lived in 5 different places in MA, parts in my childhood and parts in adulthood including Boston, totaling about 8 or 9 years of my life. Found out very quickly I wasn't a city person. Not a big fan of the state in general (high taxes, nothing for someone like me to do and crappy scenery) either and really hope I don't have to go back. I'm also 100% confident there is a correlation between driving in Boston and hypertension. New Jersey: I was young there so don't have much of an opinion, but from what I remember the area I was in was nice, still friends with some of the people there. Vermont: Absolutely love the place, I love the mountains, the lakes and the farms. You could live in Burlington VT and still be 20 minutes away from some of the best skiing in the Northeast. Unfortunately the taxes and relatively low wages for my profession would make it tough to move back there. Rhode Island: Went to college for 2 years in the Providence area, fucking shit-hole. High crime rate and really not much to do. I did visit Newport once though and thought it was awesome. New Hampshire: By far my favorite state. Low crime, low taxes, not as beautiful as VT, but comparable and the state economy more than makes up for it. If I can I will absolutely move back. I may be biased though since this is where I met all my lifelong friends (still hang out with most of my high school buddies) but goddamn if NH isn't where it's at. Connecticut: I moved to the Hartford area (outside of the city, thank god) in August and have to say that this is probably the worst state I've ever lived in. Hartford is the worst city I've ever been too, the taxes are outrageous, food, booze and gas are more expensive than Boston for christ sake. Seriously, I could fill up my car, get a 12 pack of beer and some groceries in the Faneuil Hall area all for cheaper than bumfuck Connecticut. The only things redeeming about this place for me personally is that I love my job, one of my college buddies lives in the same town as me, the restaurants have yet to disappoint and if you get far enough away from Hartford there is beautiful land (though it doesn't compare to NH or VT). If I ever get fired or laid off the first thing I am doing is leaving this horrible state. Sorry CT people, no offense to your home but this country bumpkin needs to get the fuck out.