I’m in the process of making such a change, but since it’s still in progress, I can’t really say how it’s gone yet.
After high school a large group of surfing friends and I moved out of Los Angeles down toward San Diego where the waves were better. We all lived near each other, surfed and went to school much like we did in high school. After graduating I decided to get out of the rut we were all in and bought a one way ticket to Bangkok, Thailand via Honolulu, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. I went alone not knowing anyone in the places I was going. I just knew I had to get away.
I had a blast and didn’t get back for over nine years.
Ten years ago we quit our jobs, packed up a few belongings into a pickup truck, put the rest in storage and moved to Oregon. Best move I ever made. I finally found the place I fit in, I’ve had more fun than I can begin to tell and I still have days (constantly!) when I look around and say “damn, I LIVE here!” Spontaneity rules…
After my divorce from my first husband I stayed in Kansas City Mo for another 4 years. One day, I woke up from a nap, and noticed a red leaf drifting to the ground outside my window.
The past several winters passed through my mind. I picked up the phone and gave my apartment manager a moth’s notice. The next day I did the same with my boss. Three weeks later, I headed for Seattle and never looked back.
I did the same thing a few years later in Seattle, then again in San Diego. Now I’m back in Seattle for good.
think i could email you and ask you about seattle one day? do you know enough about its arts, transportation, etc?
i’m in cambridge, but they keep taking my money without saying thank you
I try to do spontaneous things often, but I’ve never done anything too drastic. Just giant hugs, or kite clubs, or riding elevators - nothing fancy. Mostly, this is because I’m in HS, and have to conform for a little while longer to the confines of sensibility.
However, if I get into the schools I’m hoping to get into, I will either be moving to Cambridge, New York, or Georgia. Don’t really know anyone in any of those places, and I just applied because I knew I Had To Get Out. Should be fun as the dickens being as lost as a snow storm in Oklahoma, though.
I had a distinguished colleague once, who in a sober tone of resignation, nodded and said, “We’re alway struggling with the impulse of mixing a drink and driving south…”
I did just that in 1992: sold up, travelled the world, moved to a different country. I did it again in 1995, and sort of did it again in 1997 (that one was a big disaster). Then I did it again in 2004. Yes, there are hardships caused by the decisions - I’m just coming out of a pretty bad 6-month patch now due to having to start all over again, and the resulting unemployment - but hell, it’s worth it. I wouldn’t exchange the experiences I’ve had for all the tea in China.
(Aside: MessyPaint - I freakin’ love that movie! Everyone should watch it; it’s hilarious, touching, and just sort of wonderful.)
Sure, my e-mail is in my profile. Tell me what you need to know.
When Teenager2U was six weeks old, I moved us all in a rickety pick up and a breaking down car to Cape Girardeau, MO to be nearer my then husband’s family, leaving all MY family here. We lasted six weeks down there - with husband coming back up here just to make us some money - I couldn’t find a job to save my life, even temping. After I got my first ADC check and book of foodstamps, we hit the road back to Chicago without jobs lined up, or an apartment.
It worked out in the long run - but not without a lot - and I’m not talking small things - it was part of what ruined our marriage for one thing - of hardship.
Would I do it again? I’m way too old. 
Good luck in whatever you decide, Incubus.
Decided to stay on in Seattle after my right-out-of-college summer internship ended as the folks at my work were still thinking over whether to offer me a full time job. :eek: I’d had rumblings that they were favorably inclined that way, but still.
This was right after 9/11, mind. I’d asked HR to cancel my plane home as I was frightened and couldn’t deal with having to brave airports. At the best of time, those places are minor circles of hell for me, since they’re not really set up for deaf people, plus there’s thousands of people jammed into one supersized building. I was sort of vaguely thinking that I could take the train south to Texas, but…
Fortunately I got the job, and lived in my aunt’s basement for about a month or so until I could move into a basement of my own. 
Four years later or so, I emerged from that basement, blinking in the grey Seattle light, finally, finally an Adult. (A car! A condo! …A mortgage.)
Ditto. I was miserable, and unexpectedly the company where I’d been working part-time had a full-time position open. So I figured out what I could salvage from grad school - fortunately that turned out to be an M.Eng. - and told them “I quit!” Which my advisor then made me change to “I’m taking a leave of absense” but in the end I never went back. The whole leaving school process happened in under a week.
I’ve made many other Major Changes in my life: transferring from one college to another after freshman year (best decision ever), taking a job in a different state after college, leaving that job after 1 year to go to grad school, and now moving half way across the country and getting married. But all of these changes were very well planned out.
All that being said though, Major Changes have always been good for me in the long run. Even those where I ended up unhappy involved learning a lot about myself and growing up considerably. And they all involved lots of fun along the way, even those that turned out badly in the end. As long as you’re open to whatever experiences come your way and to undoing whatever changes you make if it doesn’t turn out well, you’ll do well and have a good time along the way.
Just this past year I decided in about an hour to leave Tulane University and transfer up to Chicago and go to DePaul for a change. I did this two months before Katrina so yes, it completely worked out.
Boy, I’m learning that. I moved to a new city (which is only about an hour and a half away from my hometown, but still) a year ago and while it was wonderful for the first few months I have fallen back into the same patterns, the same fears, the same obsessive thoughts and semi-paranoia. The geographic cure doesn’t always work. I don’t know what will, but I’d think long and hard before making an impulsive decision like moving to a new place. I don’t regret moving–if I didn’t live in the city I would be unable to work and I would have no friends and no LIFE at all. But I don’t think it has made me all that much happier.
Perfect.
Along these lines, I went from watching 3-4 hours of TV a day to an apartment without cable and only two receivable channels. I was surprised by how much I didn’t miss it.
I saw a documentary on vegetarianism, which focused on a female animals’ rights activist. She was very dedicated and spoke passionately about her lifestyle. I was eating a steak while I was watching and thought to myself: this should be my last steak ever. I’m converting to vegetarianism.
I was 17 then. I’m 22 now. So far so good!
After reading this thread on Saturday, I went and bought a lottery ticket. I didn’t win.
I’m in my early sixties now. I’ve thought several times about how well spontenaity has worked out for me. I practice it in little ways and I have practiced it in some big ways too. In thinking back, I wish I had done it more often. Those times have given me some great stories to tell my grandchildren.
Incubus, here’s a poem for you: “George Gray” by Edgar Lee Masters, from Spoon River Anthology
I might be making a huge change soon. If I don’t get into grad school, then I’ll be moving, and still don’t know where to yet. It might be to move in with a friend in South Carolina, maybe back down to where I went to school, maybe somewhere completly different. I’ve already quit my job, and my last day in my current apartment is April 30th.
Right now I’m very much enjoying doing nothing. With respect to Office Space, it’s everything I dreamed it would be.