So I grew up being told that to be stable you should live in one place for years. That the less one moves around the more grounded and stable one is. Also when raising children, not to move them in the middle of a school year because it destabilizes them.
Though in a world like today's where a job and opportunities sometimes define where you can live and what you can afford, it isn't always possible to just stay where you have always been. Are you supposed to commute two hours or more a day just to find a job that affords you life in your current location? So after your body, car, and life get the full workout that comes from stretching yourself in this way, you can now say you are stable. If you ask me that is one expensive price tag for stability. Plus the truth, what did you really gain that was worth all that loss. So you own a home and can't part with it. Don't want to rent it and selling just isn't profitable. Where does one draw the line and cut losses? So maybe you figure it all out and move for the job. You then lose the jobs two to four years later. What next another move. If you have kids do you then drag them through all that.
I could go on in scenarios but what I have come to understand is our definition of stable in the US is struggling to survive and has us struggling with it. Is it even worth one's while to stay stuck in one place and are the benefits worth the being stuck? After all, you got where you are because some family member, either a couple of decades ago or even more recently (could have even been you), with some courage moved.
I haven't decided, but I sure know that I am looking less and less stable. I'm evening thinking of living in two different cities across the US for different parts of the week and a foreign country for different parts of the year. In the end, I wonder if even after all that, will I be better off with all that instability. If the damage I do to my kid will be worth the opportunities I create for him and the experiences that the situations bring.
Though in a world like today's where a job and opportunities sometimes define where you can live and what you can afford, it isn't always possible to just stay where you have always been. Are you supposed to commute two hours or more a day just to find a job that affords you life in your current location? So after your body, car, and life get the full workout that comes from stretching yourself in this way, you can now say you are stable. If you ask me that is one expensive price tag for stability. Plus the truth, what did you really gain that was worth all that loss. So you own a home and can't part with it. Don't want to rent it and selling just isn't profitable. Where does one draw the line and cut losses? So maybe you figure it all out and move for the job. You then lose the jobs two to four years later. What next another move. If you have kids do you then drag them through all that.
I could go on in scenarios but what I have come to understand is our definition of stable in the US is struggling to survive and has us struggling with it. Is it even worth one's while to stay stuck in one place and are the benefits worth the being stuck? After all, you got where you are because some family member, either a couple of decades ago or even more recently (could have even been you), with some courage moved.
'So is being stable being stuck or refusing to be moved by life's situations?'
I haven't decided, but I sure know that I am looking less and less stable. I'm evening thinking of living in two different cities across the US for different parts of the week and a foreign country for different parts of the year. In the end, I wonder if even after all that, will I be better off with all that instability. If the damage I do to my kid will be worth the opportunities I create for him and the experiences that the situations bring.
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