Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Gayna's avatar

This post felt so personal for you but as well as for me and many others. I grew up as a military kid traveling every two years to somewhere new, sometimes in the US, sometimes in lands foreign. When my father retired in Texas, I never felt at home there, and as time passed and I grew older, I realized I was lucky enough to go somewhere else. And it sure as hell wasnt going to be in the USA during this crazy period. We won’t be staying forever in Portugal as much as we love it—taxes will kill us. But we’ve already started thinking of our next stop. Will it be back to the USA to somewhere reasonably sane like another writer mentioned (Santa Fe) or maybe we will find ourselves lucky enough to obtain an EU passport and go where there are still no guns and reasonable people? Who knows, but I think we are always evolving and changing and for right now, we are so happy we made the decision to leave the USA and come to this beautiful land and get to know the wonderful people and culture. Thank you for generously sharing your talent of expression with us.

Expand full comment
Megan Gibbons's avatar

Thanks for sharing your thought processes LaDonna. As someone who also has a school-aged child and left the U.S. for a different, and hopefully better, life in Portugal, I can relate to much of it. I have moved quite bit in my life and have never really thought of it as running from something so much as a just one chapter ending and it being time to start the next. I moved every few years as a child and at the time I was envious of people who had roots and lifelong childhood homes. But now as an adult I have replicated the same patterns as it feels totally normal and natural to me. Though I do hope we stay put for a while now.

Expand full comment
17 more comments...

No posts