Pros and Cons of being Semi-Nomadic

Posted on by Hattush

We always joke that our family is semi-nomadic. We only stay in one place for so long before we’re packin’ up the U-Haul and hitting the road again. There are both pros and cons to this type of lifestyle.

(also, I wrote this in the midst of our most recent moves, but didn’t get around to publishing it until now *rolls eyes*)

Pro #1: We get to see a lot of places

One befit of moving a lot is that we get to see a ton of different places. (And, of course, our family loves to travel, too!) So far I’ve visited 35 states, all across the US. *heart eyes* I love seeing the diversity of different states and how different people are all over the country.

Pro #2: If I don’t like the place we’re living, I don’t have to be stuck with it for the rest of my childhood

This has been my comfort in the past couple moves. XD I’m not confined to one place for my whole life. *runs around in circles and feels suddenly claustrophobic just thinking about it* If I really dislike where we live at the time, I am always comforted by the fact that we’ll eventually leave and find new territories and new lands to explore! *cue triumphant music track and watch me walk into the sunset, waving a huge map as my battle prize*

Pro #3: We get to meet a lot of people

This is kind of along the same lines as the first point. But seriously, when you live in a lot of different places, you get to meet all sorts of different people. It’s really amazing to see the diversity between states.

Pro #4: Experience a diversity of climates

We lived in MN for one year. I LOVED the summer weather. It was amazingly comfortable and perfect for being outside. But the rest of the year was kind of cold. XD Whereas earlier this year (March, for example) I was sweating like crazy.

Pro #5: We look semi-impressive on paper XD

That one speaks for itself. XD When people want random facts about me, it’s always fun to list the amount of times we’ve moved. :P🤣 My little brother Dovid has moved a grand total of two times (not counting the move we made while he was in the womb or the temporary house that we stayed in for a month) and he’s not even two years old.

Pro #6: Never get bored of one place

Well, maybe I do, but the rest of my family doesn’t. XD

Con #1: Packing/Unpacking

Uuuugh. This is one of the major drawbacks, especially since I am not extremely great at packing. I should be, considering everything…. Two moves ago, I packed all of my stuff into a couple big boxes. Everyone complained because they were so heavy. So when we moved here, I put all of my stuff into a lot of very tiny boxes. Guess what? Everyone thought it was hilarious how much stuff I had. 😑😑

Packing is kind of fun, in my opinion. *images of little siblings cast-away toys, clutter and large basements filled with junk fill my mind* Let me rephrase that. I enjoy packing my stuff. Ahem. I love all the excitement and joy of the anticipated move. *heart eyes* Unpacking isn’t quite as much fun. While we do get to find all that stuff that we’ve had to do without, we also have to find places to put it. I just need to dump a bunch of useless sentimental stuff that I have…oh the horrors of that task. XD

Con #2: Looking for houses

This can be reeeeeeeeaaaaaaaally boring. *nods* When we look at house after house after house, the excitement wears off and I’m just like, “You know, it really doesn’t matter where we live. I’ll just stay in the van while you look.” XD (This was the case with us over the past two weekends. We spent three days this weekend looking at house after house after house. All day. For hours on end. With not much of a break and five annoyed, tired, grumpy siblings around me.)

Con #3: Moving is stressful

Packing, selling our previous house, buying a new one, saying goodbye to people, cleaning, unpacking….it’s stressful to stay the least. People get worn down and exhausted and tempers flare easily. There’s always this month long period after we move where everyone is a wreck. We’re all trying to readjust and start “normal” life again, in a completely new place. People get mad, fight, scream, cry, lock themselves away and fall apart. 😦

Con #4: Never feeling like you belong anywhere

This is one of the hardest things about moving so often. All around me, I’ll see people who seem perfectly happy and like they have a place in their town and city and state. Everywhere I go, I feel like a stranger. I do not belong anywhere. I wasn’t born here. I wasn’t raised here. I’ve only been here nine months and we’re leaving again . And even if we stay in our next house for the next ten years, I still won’t belong.

Con #5: Having to leave friends

This was hard when I was younger. As excited and happy was I was to be moving, it was always sad to leave my friends. But that was back when I wasn’t so shy and reclusive. Eventually, I just stopped making in-person friends because I knew we would leave them (as well as other reasons). Now that all of my friends are online/through snail mail, I’m free to fly like the wind as far and as long as I can. *nods* Or at least as far and long as my family can, ‘cause I’m not old enough to move myself yet. XD

Con #6: Nowhere ever feels like home

It’s always awkward when people ask, “Where are you from?” There are several different answers. I could list the state where I was born or the one that we spent the most time in. I normally just shrug and say, “We just moved from so-and-so.”

Honestly, nowhere ever feels like home. This is just a house. I would never dream of calling this state (or the one that we’re moving to) my home. I don’t have a “home state” per say. I was born one place and I’m now in a totally different place. That’s that. *shrugs*  I can accept that and be perfectly happy with it.

Would I give up this life for a more stable one? Not a chance. I’m a wanderer. I was born one and I’m pretty sure I’ll stay one. I always catch myself thinking, “I wonder where we’ll go next….” I love traveling and going from place to place. I always joke that if I get married, my husband is going to have to like moving/traveling ‘cause I’ll shrivel up and die if we have to stay in one place for any great length of time. XD

~Hattush

Have you ever moved? If so, what were your greatest challenges/rewards? Are you a wanderer/traveler/explorer? 😛

(Also, if you want a more comical version of this post with hilarious cartoon pics, check out the one that I did a few months ago.)

Published by Hattush

Christian| Writer| Glider Slave| Runner| Blogger| Baker| Greek Myth Nerd| Photographer| Sister| Someone who believes in hope and seeks to spread it|

38 thoughts on “Pros and Cons of being Semi-Nomadic”

  2. Oh, yes!
    The times that we have moved have been fun, and hard.
    I can relate to most of these pros and cons, even though I haven’t moved that many times. I totally understand the stress of packing and unpacking. lol. I have way to much stuff, so when we moved, I had to get rid of a lot of stuff. I was pretty young then, so it was even harder.
    I have moved 6 times, but never to a different state, and twice I was really young, like 2 or 3. The largest move was 4 hours away. The other times it was 30 mins away, and then the last time was next door. XD
    How many times have you moved?
    -Haley

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    1. YES! I always get rid of a lot of stuff when we move. It’s like, do I really want to drag this to our new house and waste space and energy? 😆
      Cool! I have moved 15 major times and 3 minor ones. 🌝

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    1. Haha! *hugs* You know, I never knew ANYONE who moved anywhere near as much as I had until I started blogging! It’s kinda cool to know that I’m not the only one!

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  4. Okay, I’m the old lady in the group! 😄 As a child I was a military brat and we moved a lot. I loved it. Fast forward to age.-well, none of your business (LOL!!)-and I still love moving but my body is like, we ain’t doing this again. My best time was selling the house, selling or donating most everything and keeping enough to fit in a 10×5 storage unit. We did AirBNB for eight months then ended with a two month cruise, before settling down again. Three years later we moved again, and my hubs says this is it. Many days I say to myself, this better not be it, but then my body seems to have an opinion now and argues this better be it! So, all this to say, enjoy every moment because the day will come when your body gets sassy and it usually wins!

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    1. Aw, thanks for your comment! Yeees! I totally LOVE moving. I really can’t imagine staying in one place for over a few years! I will certainly savor the moments while I can!
      Wow, that’s so cool – doing airbnb and a cruise before settling down again! That sounds like so much fun!

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      1. It will certainly teach you to live light and to only keep the important things (news flash it isn’t clothes or shoes…, well, unless the shoes are half boots with silver rivets and can literally be worn with anything😍!).

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    2. I can relate. I moved 14 times during my life time and have reached the stage where staying in one spot seems like a pretty good idea. Some of my moves included moving from from one country to another and moving across the big pond three times. It’s crazy trying to pack everything you want to keep into crates and have them shipped in an overseas container. But anyway, it was fun. Now we live in the most beautiful place on earth (that’s what we think!) – in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, on a dirt road surrounded by mountains. We have everything in reach from hiking, biking, fishing, outdoor sports, and wildlife, and more. A dream come true for us. Hopefully you will find your place on the earth one day, too. Blessings, Elfriede

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      1. Wow, I can’t imagine moving across countries. That’s gotta be a whole new level of toughness – moving cross states is hard enough as it is!
        Ah, your place sounds beautiful! What a lovely area to live in! Mountains are beautiful. ❤

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        1. Yes, shipping all your belongings or better the ones you really want to keep and take across the ocean is a different kind of move. I sorted out quite a bit the first time around, and then got better at it the second and third time. It’s an experience, not only with regard to the packing but also dealing with customs and government regulations. Anyway, I don’t think I would want to have missed that experience! Enjoy moving with your family and seeing all the wonderful places around. That way you can decide better where you really want to spend a big chunk of your life. Blessings, Elfriede

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  6. Those are really good pros and cons! I really like where I live, but sometimes I wish I lived somewhere else. If that makes sense or if it’s Anything related to moving😂
    I think the hardest part About moving would be leaving friends. And I’ve never moved.

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  7. XD So true! while I have only moved three times, the most stressful one was to Haiti! But we couldn’t take much anyway, since we had to go by plane, It was a cool experience though, I still like Minnesota best lol cold weather included. 😉 Good post

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  8. I can totally relate to the parts about packing and unpacking and looking for a place to move to!
    Whenever we have to search for a house, at first it’s fun and exciting! But then, especially in this last move, when you’ve been to house, after house…after house, going on loooong drives, and NONE of the houses are right, it gets tiring and boring.
    We’ve kind of settled in now, and if we ever move again, I’m afraid we may not have enough space for everything we’ve acquired! 😂

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      1. Um, I don’t know. I think we’d like to be, but there have been some things recently that have made us start looking elsewhere. However, we haven’t found anything suitable, so far.

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  9. I have had many homes in my life, but not nearly as many of some of you, and hearing talk of all the stress makes me panic slightly. It is exciting too and obviously there’s always a good reason to move, otherwise one would simply stay put! I am looking for a new place to live and for the first time the responsibility is mine to do the searching, so I’m looking through very different glasses this time! But it is really making me appreciate all the advantages of my warm, dry, familiar home where I am just now… I can’t help but feel for refugees and for the homeless – especially at this time of year – those who have no home to move to, but are wandering in limbo, with nothing but their home in a carrier bag. (as the song goes) Blessings.

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    1. *hugs* Yes, moving can be really hard. Finding new places to live and leaving old ones can be awful sometimes. My younger sister HATES moving and it has been really hard on her. 😦 I’ll keep you in my prayers as you search for your own home. ❤

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