Moving day

I have way too many started but unfinished blogs lying around, will have to do something about that one day.

Anyway today was moving day. Nope I didn't actually move again but I helped a really good friend move this morning. As moves go it was one of the most smooth we've been involved with and let me tell you both myself and my friend have been involved in a lot of moves. Whole heap actually we've virtual moving experts against our wishes. At one stage it got to a point where we were like if this school stuff doesn't work out we should seriously consider getting into the moving business. Yep we've made some serious moves back in the day. In fact about 8 years ago we even moved three apartments in a single day. Now that was crazy!

That was during our days in school when life was more transient.

Ah the transient lifestyle. Actually today's move got me all pensive.

Moving is something I dislike. I've grown accustomed to it though which is also strange because for the first more than half of my life spent in Barbados I lived in exactly the same place from birth through the end of high school till I left home.

Then I came to Canada and my life as a nomad started. Live on campus during school, move out in May, move somewhere else in September and the beat goes on.

Even after finishing school its still been a rather transient life I've lived; moving continents, countries, cities and apartments to the extent that since I first left home I haven't lived in one spot for more than the just under four years I spent at my last apartment.

Its a whole itinerant thing which hasn't really helped me with my feelings of homelessness that I've experienced ever since I came to Canada. Its also a homelessness amplified by the fact that I know that my old home, my childhood home, is no longer really my home anymore either. You can never go back as the old saying goes.

Still moving makes me reflect a bit on some of the differences between Caribbean life and North American life. For instance in the Caribbean, well Barbados I should say instead of generalizing, a lot of folk I know don't do much moving. You grow up in the same house or maybe move once or twice but nothing more and then as an adult you try to save money to build your own house as opposed to buying and that's where you usually intend to stay until you are old and gray. (that's just how it goes unless you are renting but even then folks that I knew who rented in Barbados never seemed to move as much as the ones here.)

Here, you buy a condo or a starter house. Then if the value goes up and you can make a profit you sell that house or if you get kids and you outgrow that starter house you move to a bigger house. Then when the kids leave home you may move down a house or as you get old decide you cant deal with shovelling the sidewalk and mowing the lawn and move into a condo. Its like a whole cycle of life. Apartment, starter house or condo, bigger house back to condo. I'm still trying to get used to that.

Cause with moving usually comes the packing, the unpacking, the buying of new stuff, dumping of old stuff, the new phone number after having just memorized the last one, the new keys, the new neighbors and just a whole bunch of adjustments that take a bit of getting used to. And yes it can be a good sometimes great thing like when you get a new spot that is finally your own or if you are moving out of a place with rodent or insect issues (been there done that) but somehow I've just moved way too much in the past decade and it just doesn't fit my personality somehow.
I guess its all a part of what stage of life you're at though. Like now that I'm married and all I wouldn't expect to make as many moves but still I must say the uprooting and the whole drama involved when I move house just doesn't help my mindstate it just makes me long for the good old days where I lived in the same spot for 18+ years.