I’ve basically changed everything in my life over the past four months: New job, moved across the country, went from major urban center to rural area, etc etc. This is just my second major move (I’m 40ish) and the first time I did this it took two years before I felt “normal.”
I’m being hyper-social at work (not natural to me, but I’m faking it :D,) talking to my neighbors, walking the dogs around town a lot, etc. I think I’m past the “crying every night into my pillow and wishing I could click my heels together” stage . . . but, man, this is difficult!
What tricks have you used to acclimate? I’d like to hear about the small stuff (i.e., not "join the ladies auxiliary and the board of education and go to church.) I’ve found that my best security blanket thus far has been cable TV!
Well, there’s that . . . unfortunately, “home” is a ghastly expensive city and returning would involve a vow of poverty I’m not quite ready to take up again .
Oddly enough, when I moved 500-some miles away from home, I found that my daily chats with the coffee person, lunch person, drugstore checker, etc. got me through the day. This little bit of friendly, fun contact was like a balm.
When I moved to NC from NY about 9 years ago (I’m back in NY now), I found that I felt oddly at home when I walked in to Walmart. It had the exact same layout as my hometown store and I felt comforted while there.
I’ve lived in lots of places far away from home for work and school; and found that for the most part it wasn’t places, it was people and things that I missed. Once I got myself into a routine and my needs were met, one place was much like another, we can adapt a lot. Care packages from the place you’re pining for do do help a lot, and if there’s a regional food or treat, see if you can order or have it sent.
I moved from Ontario to Florida 8 1/2 years ago. The first couple of years, I was homesick, and the first thing I did when I got my green card was to go back for a week. When I got there, a lot of people I’d known had moved without mentioning it to me. The ones I did visit were still doing exactly the same thing they were when I left, and they seemed to resent me for breaking out. So I came back somewhat disillusioned, and accepted that Florida was my new home. None of the people I knew have computers, so there can’t be anytime communication.
I take much comfort in the fact that I’m doing a lot better here than I ever did up there. I could not be where I am in life if I was still up there now. There are only two people I know left in Canada, and to go back would be about $3000 that my wife and I don’t have, and we’d go there to do… I don’t know what. That would work out to some very expensive poutine! So even though I miss it, the passage of time makes Canada seem like a scratchy, disturbing black-and-white movie I saw once. Actually, I don’t really miss it that much. All the really crappy things in my life happened to me up there, and all the really wonderful things happened down here. I’m home.
I haven’t gotten it figured out yet, so I’ll be watching this thread. I think one of the things that has helped the most is that I already had a good deal of my social life online, and that moved right along with me.
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