Right now I live in the South. This is a temporary situation. When Darlin’ completes his schoolin’, we will be moving to whatever university requires a stellar specialist in the Political Economy of Latin America (Brazilian focus), with additional experience in Irish Economic Development in the 1980s. Lord knows where that will be, but the job placement services at the school where Darlin’ studies will certainly find him a few choices. After we retire, we will live in the coastal South Carolina city where we got married, with a holiday home in Rome. We plan on starting a Rome apartment fund once he gets out of school and we aren’t scraping by anymore. (Does a family ever stop scraping by?)
But what of the thirty or so years in between? We talk about it all the time. Where will we go? What type of school? What type of town? Will we be close to family, or far? Will we stay forever, or move again after a few years? Below is a selection of places we may move, and how we/he/I feel about them:
Tuscon, Arizona – if Darlin’ had his druthers we’d live in Tuscon, Arizona until retirement. It could be worse – his obsession used to be Texas. I have a few years to talk him out of it.
Western North Carolina – Each set of parents would be about 3 hours away. There are lots of universities there. The towns in the area are funky and cool. We’d be happy there.
Louisville, Kentucky – We Wonder Women went to college near there. It has a lot to recommend itself, especially a ready-made circle of friends, which is hard to find!
DC or NYC – Darlin’ could get a corporate job in either of these places. But we’d have to sell our firstborn to be able to live comfortably there. How much $$ do firstborn children fetch nowadays?
The coast of Northern California – I love it here. LOVE. IT. Darlin’ hates it. HATES. IT. Until I remind him of the proximity of Yosemite. The he just hates it. No capital letters.
Brazil – You never know! We could live in Brazil for a while, given his specialty. We’d both enjoy it. For a while. Plane tickets home would be a nightmare, though.
That’s the short list. We have debated coast vs. inland, near the parents vs. far, small town/small school vs. big city/big university. We won’t know until 6 months or so before we have to move there. So for now . . . it’s just fun to dream . . .