Planning a Permanent Move

Introduction
Rule One: bring less. It’s easier. Regardless of other variables – how many people, destination, your Chinese zodiac sign – this doesn’t change. Repeat it like a mantra. Repeat it regardless of your vehicle, because whether you have a single car or a fleet of U-Hauls, the rule applies:
Bring less.
Letting things go seems scary if [...]

Sidebar: The Struggle

He said he needed to get out. Out of Albany, out from his family, who had his back since forever, really. It was the reason he stopped trying in high school (“I stopped taking it seriously, since I always knew the family business was going to be there.”)
That was six years ago, [...]

Sidebar: Breaking Falls

The good news: my foot broke the bike’s fall. If I irreparably damaged Teddy’s two months before we left for Los Angeles, I wouldn’t forgive myself.
The bad news: my foot broke the bike’s fall.
In the background, I heard the engine putter to silence as I remembered the last time I laid the [...]

Why?

You are moving your entire life away from your family and your friends. You’re leaving the house you grew up in, the street your school bus ambled down. Love or hate your hometown, at the very least, you know it. And by leaving, you sacrifice your knowledge of the terrain, the edge of familiarity – [...]