Ten years ago, a colleague walked into the faculty room announcing, “Who are these mid-lifers selling their family homes and moving? Building new homes? My friends are crazy! I’m exhausted thinking about it!” She went on…
I’ve thought of her a dozen times since Mother’s Day when my husband and I signed to build a new home. In Texas. 1528 miles from where we’ve lived our entire lives.
Last summer (2024) I wrote a short series of mid-life moving posts. We sold our family home in less than 24 hours, packed, stored and moved into a temporary new apartment.
Going from acres, a pool, nature….all the wonderful things about “home” to an apartment, albeit a very nice, spacious one, was a change we never adjusted to.
Despite my dear colleague’s sentiments, many New Yorkers head south for warmth and some tell me they relocate to get away from their adult children asking for babysitting.
We are the opposite.
We’re moving to the great state of Texas, down the road from our youngest who will be starting a family in the new year, God willing.
We always planned to leave New York. Five years ago, we were ready to sell and relocate to Virginia or North Carolina. Then, our daughter fell in love and married a Texan taking over the family business, grounding them for the near future. Our plan altered just a few states west.
After four years of prayer and several trips to Texas, we finally had peace.
In the last month I’ve not posted as often nor been able to read every one of your posts because we moved from the bigger apartment to the smaller one we’ll keep in NY (hubs job is based here, and our twins remain in NY-for now😉). Both of us will fly back and forth. Then, we arranged the moving truck for the rest to be delivered to the great state. It’s been as crazy as my colleague said!
So, we’re packing up again to move to TX where I’ll make a “family” home for my children and future grandchildren.
Moving earns its place on lists of “most stressful life events”. The emotion of it is real – the goodbyes to people and stuff that can’t go with us. Some who move say they stress about where to place the silverware drawer, wonder about navigating unfamiliar streets, different people, places and new routines.
But therein also lie the very elements that make this an exciting adventure.
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Tales from a Mid-Lifer 
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