Why do you live where you do?

Be as specific as you want. Do you plan on staying forever or is it only temporary? If temporary, where do you want to go? What do you like about it? What do you dislike?

I live in in Omaha, NE. My husband got stationed here. We'll be here for 3 more years. I don't know where we'll go next. He's got California on his mind, and I have North Carolina.

We chose to live in an older neighborhood. We didn't want to live in suburbia. We're pretty close to downtown Omaha. We chose our house because it has a lot of space, a yard, garage, nice kitchen, two bathrooms, and a garage.

I dislike that about 1/3 of the neighborhood doesn't give a shit about the appearance of their home/yard. It's heavily Hispanic area about a mile from us.

We are close to the highway, which is nice. We're close to a lot of shopping. It's an easy drive to base. And we're across the street from one of the best zoos in the country.

Ok, your turn.

 

Mostly because I was born here, and because my family is here. Other than that, I don't have any good reasons for living/staying here.

Right now I would just like to travel.

 

I live in the outskirts of Los Angeles. I was born here so that is why i'm here. If everything goes well with this job (of sorts) I might be getting later this month I could be moving somewhere else in the USA or to Europe within 2 years or so.

 

I live in the town I grew up in. I really wanted to move after high school but I chose a school close to home then in my early twenties I made a lot of amazing friends and got swept up in what they were doing and moving became less of a priority. Then I had a baby and being close to family became a huge priority.

I don't really like the house I live in, it's a rental and it's in a weird spot right off a main road so I constantly hear traffic. Plus it's impossible to walk anywhere because the road is too busy and it's not close to anything anyways. I prefer to live either in the country where I have fields and quiet roads to explore, or in the city where I can walk anywhere I need to go.

 

Better do it soon, before you are too old to enjoy it. People always state that young adults should travel to gain some experience in life, yet unless one has rich parents that just is not going to be possible for most people. Unless you want to hitchhike and live on the road like a homeless bum, which most people do not want to do. By the time the young people get jobs to earn traveling money, they realize all their expenses are going toward bills and they never go anywhere.

But enough with the rant.

I live where I do because it is where my father moved when I was in college in D.C. Near the end of my first year of college, I informed my father through an email that I was gay. He disowned me. I had no where to go. Luckily, a friend invited me to stay with her family in Missouri. I was only there for about six months before my grandmother convinced my father to accept me back into his home. Clearwater. I have lived in Tallahassee and Mississippi in between, but I always end up right back here. I really dislike the area, the Scientologists notwithstanding.

I have recently thought about leaving the country. Perhaps moving to Canada. The U.S. is becoming a worse and worse country in which to live.

 

I was born and raised here in Minnesota, and pretty much my entire family is here. I spent about 8 years after high school living out of the state, and spent a good deal of that traveling to different places around the world, both in and out of the military. My heart has always been here though. I do try to travel as much as I can though. I've been to India and Germany since moving here. Starting the process of planning a trip to Africa now.

 

Where in MN are you? That's my home state.

 

Right now I am in the Twin Cities metro, along with 3/4 of the state. I was born and raised near St. Cloud though.

Where are you from?

 

Gotcha. I contemplated going to SAint Cloud State, but I decided I would go with a more viable option, Augsburg. I'm from the Duluth area though.

 

Geez, thanks for bumming me out even more, Maelstrom.

 

This is complete bullshit. I travelled around the world for many years of my life and I met lots and lots of young adults who also travel and most of them are by no means rich or have rich parents.

 

How do you do it, though (in terms of the money, etc.)?

Also, how old are you, Bird?

 

because there strip clubs and titty bars everywhere

 

Pure and simple the cost of living in this part of Kentucky is CHEAP.

While I was serving in the army up in Alaska my parents decided to move here from Illinois. I needed a place to stay so I moved in with them for a little bit. My wife had wanted to stay in Alaska for a little longer so I let her. Unfortunately she died in a freak accident up there, and it ruined all my plans. I got comfortable just punching the clock and keeping busy. I met someone new and thank god she put up with me for all these years because I was a wreck in so many ways. My son was born exactly 3 years to the day my wife died Jan 2nd. I took it as a sign to move on and I've been getting my shit together ever since. We plan on saving up and moving to Wisconsin eventually.

I hated this part of Kentucky for so long. A lot of the stereotypes you hear about this place are true. When you scratch the surface though the appalachian mountains are really a beautiful place... to retire. The school system here sucks and for my son's sake he deserves better. Me and my fiance are both still young enough to do better than this. We'll come back to retire on the land my family fought hard to get.

Of course there's always the possibility we'll never leave and I'll make the best of that situation too.

 

There are ways to travel and not be rich or a beggar. Save money for a year, and live very minimally. Purchase flights that often times are overbooked, and get airline vouchers for giving up your seat, couch surf, stay in hostels, fly cheap airlines in off season, buy food from grocery stores instead of restaurants. Unless you have serious debt and or family obligations, I don't know why it would be all that difficult to travel.

 

I'm somewhat different from most travellers, because I used to make my money playing poker.
Generally most of them either worked hard for a year or few years and save up a few thousand dollar. For instance, if you travel in certain parts of Asia or South-America you can get by on 10$ a day. So a few thousand will last a long time and it's very easy for us Westerners to save up.

Also a lot work/travel abroad, especially for native English speakers it's easy to find a job as a teacher. Usually food/lodging is included so most money you save can be used for travel. South Korea for example is a good place to do that, because it's a 'rich' country.

Also I met travellers who own a house and rent it out to travel with the rent money. I met photographers, travel writers, artists etc. etc.

Another thing you could do is WWOOFing, especially in Australia it's popular.

Or you could work at a hostel for food/lodging.

Basically if you really want to travel there are many different ways to do it. The biggest step for most is to leave the security of home behind. Once you leave that behind, it's really not that hard to find ways to travel.

Edit: Couchsurfing works too.

 

Thank you, Bird (and Frieden and Lodog).

 

Do you know where you want to travel, PR?

 

My family moved here when I was 8 or 9, and I've stayed because my family and my wife's family is here. It's a nice place, close to the biggest city in the country, lots to do around here.

 

Anywhere, really, but I prefer warmer climates to cold ones.

Part of me wants to go West, but South America and Asia cross my mind a lot, too.

I just need a change of scenery at this point in my life, yet at the same time I've always been a bit apprehensive about traveling. I think I would need at least another person to travel with, though I kind of would like to do it alone.