No, I don’t move for work

Relocating, it’s difficult, scary, and exciting, but comes at a cost: I remember the first time I was away from home for an extended period of time, this was when I was in San Francisco — it almost destroyed me. In all honesty, this is potentially when my depression should’ve been diagnosed, but that’s a story for another day.

My point is, relocating is REALLY difficult; The only way I have found to healthily relocate is to move because I want to live in a new city, not just because of work. For me, as I mentioned in a previous article, I moved to Berlin because I love the socio-cultural atmosphere: on the whole people are friendly and accepting, and I don’t get too much direct transmisogyny or transphobia.

The only way to healthily relocate is to relocate for Life, because I want to live in a city. Not just because of work.

Relocating for work is different, because suddenly you go from having a full life with friends, known places, a social scene, interest & sport groups, professional networks, in addition to work, to suddenly just having exclusively work.

This can really mess people up, and those who are proponents of relocation often don’t understand this.

To live happy and healthy lives, we need balance, we need our outside of work lives to be rich & full, otherwise we find that work becomes our life, and that’s no way to live. We need our friends, we need our favourite little places, we need an environment that fulfills us to thrive.

Yes, it might be amazing and look glamorous to be offered a job in a far of place, but that comes at a cost.

Photo at the start is by CC license, found via the creative commons search engine.