Joy in life isn’t from living in, or visiting, a specific location but from the relationships you build while living in that place. So, love the place you’re in!
I’ve lived in in three different states in the U.S., as a permanent resident, over the course of my 70+ year life. My longest stay was in Florida while growing up, plus the first twelve years of our marriage. Currently, this is my third time living in Georgia.
This post addresses two questions, “My Second Favorite Place to live “and “Where I would want to go if I could go anywhere in the world.” The first question looks back over our lifetime. The second question looks forward to what could be.
Current Favorite Place
The first question for this post asks “What’s the Second Favorite Place where you’ve lived.” The assumption is that my current location is my favorite.
Actually, that’s true about the current location. I really enjoy retirement in the North Georgia mountains. We have easy access to see our kids and grandkids. We also have the freedom and good health to travel whenever we want.
More importantly, right now, I’m engaged in life activities that are extremely fulfilling to me.
Second Favorite Place
If pushed, I suppose my Second Favorite Place would be our twelve years in Ohio. It was a time of financial stability given I was a new, and eventually tenured, faculty member at Miami University. Fact is, the transition from industry to academia had an extremely positive impact on my annual salary.
We lived in the moderate-sized college town of Oxford, Ohio. It was a very livable and safe place to raise a family. We were within a short drive to Cincinnati for big-city events. like baseball, as well as department store shopping.
We bought an older home in an established neighborhood, slowly upgrading the house each year we were there.
Our oldest three kids grew up in Ohio. We added a fourth child to our family while we lived there. The oldest three graduated from high school there. Three of our kids were married there.
As a child, our youngest daughter could ride her bike down the street to the community pool. A few years later, our fourth child learned to swim in that same pool. Now, that same daughter lives in Ohio with her family.
We built some lasting friendships there. My wife and I worked with a young married couples Sunday School class, thus had an impact on their lives. My wife was active in the deaf ministry at church.
We liked the variety of all four seasons. The kids really enjoyed the winter snows. We had a great sledding hill in our back yard. During the summer that same hill made for a great water slid using a long piece of plastic.
As part of my faculty responsibilities at Miami University, I traveled to conferences. We were able to block time as a couple on some of the trips for personal outings. For example, My wife and I visited Hershey, Pennsylvania on one trip. There we had the world’s most expensive brunch! On another trip we visited Niagara Falls during a meeting in Canada.
Therefore, on the basis of our overall quality of family life, Ohio was my Second Favorite Place to live.
Where I’ve Been
The second question asks: “If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?” I probably should start with where I’ve already been.
As an undergraduate co-op student working in Washington D.C. I lived in Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. During our youngest’s 6th grade trip we visited D.C. and New York City.
On business trips, I’ve made brief international trips to Canada and to Mexico.
My wife and I have been permanent residents of Florida, Georgia, and Ohio over our nearly 50 years of marriage.
We have vacationed in a number of locations around the Southeast. However, we don’t do cruise ships. We have been on only two flights together that I remember. One was during the Mexico trip.
Inside the U.S., I’ve traveled on business, or vacations, to a number of states, including California, Texas, Arizona, New York, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee. We have family in South Carolina, so visit there regularly.
My scheduled accreditation visits to universities in Hawaii and Utah as a business school dean were cancelled due to COVID. The review teams handled those visits remotely.
Where Would I Go
So, the question is “If you could visit any place in the world, where would you go?”
In short, I don’t have a preference. I don’t travel that well and simply don’t have a burning desire to make any overseas or domestic trip at this point in my life.
Truly, there’s no “trip of a lifetime” I’m looking forward to right now!
More specifically, if the trip doesn’t involve grandchildren, we are not likely to go there!
Some Takeaways
Joy in life isn’t from living in, or visiting, a specific location but from the relationships you build while living in that place.
Many of the relocations we experience in life are due to career changes. Deliberate-choice moves, like we experienced about two years ago, often come at retirement.
Where we live is much less important, I believe, than the intentional choices we make to grow personally and spiritually while we are living somewhere. As such, personal transformation can occur any place if we so choose.