July 25th was our last day in Scotland. It’s been one month and some change (pun intended) since we packed up the last of our belongings and moved (back) to the US from Scotland almost exactly 5 years to the day that we originally moved there in 2019. I promised it would be our last winter there, and by god I meant it!
So, we ended up moving to Raleigh, North Carolina.
It’s the opposite of Scotland in many ways. There is actual summer here. There are lots of people who aren’t white. People play sports other than soccer. In other words, I’m really enjoying being back.
But that’s not to say that I regret anything (here is a bit from before we moved about why we did it). Look, I like to talk a lot of shit about Scotland only because the Scots themselves are a good-humored bunch and give it equally back about us yanks. I wouldn’t do anything different in terms of the move over there and the process we’ve all gone through as a family. It’s been pretty special, and I would recommend it (more travel, more moving, more experiences living in different places) to every family.
That being said, my wife and I have been in moving mode for so many weeks/months that it’s hard to relax. There is a busy, anxious, need-to-be-doing-something feeling that still permeates nearly every moment of our days that is hard to suppress. Trying to insert some fun time amongst it all is hard, but we had a Nerf war today for an hour amongst the mess, and it was oddly soothing.
We’re getting there.
The other thing that felt soothing was that we finally got our small shipment of stuff that we shipped in May (just a few days under three months from door-to-door), and even though we’re still sleeping on mattresses on the floor without much furniture, this added to that feeling of gradually, day-by-day, starting to feel more settled.
Maybe saying “some change” is a bit modest, or maybe it’s all relative. Whatever it is, this change feels good. 😉
Comments welcome!