moving

This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Imelda Collins, who is selling her house in Ireland via an online raffle. Each entry is 5 euros (about $6.75), and people can buy multiple entries. The drawing is scheduled for Thursday, May 22, at 10 a.m. local time. The conversation has been edited for…

At 25, I had a great group of friends. We'd have our religious Sunday brunches once a month, and our not-so-religious coffee catch-ups once a week. It was perfect.But then I got a new job and was forced to move to a new city in India where I knew no one, ripping me from the…

After getting my first job at 14 years old, I became hardwired to feel like my life would be a combination of school, work, and limited play until I retired.That mindset followed me everywhere, including across the Atlantic, when my husband, children, and I moved from Cleveland to Rome in 2014.After spending time in Italy's…

I was 900 miles from home, in a new state, at a new school, and moving into a new apartment when I ran into the guy who lived next door. Consumed with grief over a recent break-up and busy acclimating to all the new and rapid changes in my life, I hardly noticed him, assuming…

I first moved from Colorado to Bozeman, Montana, in 2012 for a publishing job. Immediately, the picturesque city felt like home.My community felt small, vibrant, athletic, and artsy. I loved being surrounded by nature and hiking and snowboarding in the mountains one day while taking advantage of convenient city perks, like walkable stretches of restaurants…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Isheeta Borkar, a 33-year-old working in human resources and travel blogger living in Vancouver. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.​My husband and I are originally from India, but moved separately to the US and Canada over a decade ago.When we met in 2018,…

In 2018, I moved from Youngstown, Ohio — one of the cloudiest cities in the US — to Reno, Nevada — one of the sunniest.Whereas my hometown of Youngstown averages about 200 days of cloudy skies each year, Reno averages over 250 days of sunshine.Moving across the country for graduate school was an exciting new…

In 2017 in the dead of winter in West Michigan, our car slid into the parking lot of the local hospital as snow fell in the darkness of early morning.My water had broken in the middle of the night, sending my husband and me into a frenzy as we rushed to meet our sweet firstborn.…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Bill Bengel, 84, a Michigan retiree who stopped working 24 years ago. After spending most of his career at General Motors, Bengel retired and lived the next two decades at a lake house in northern Michigan and in Florida. However, after developing a vascular disease, he…

I'm a proud third-generation New Yorker, and I never imagined leaving the city where everything seemed to be happening. After all, where else could I survive as a multi-hyphenate playwright, performer, and chess teacher? Whenever my friends moved out of the city, I'd secretly scoff and label their choice a failure while priding myself on…