5 Surprising Benefits of an Unplanned Nomadic Life

Change creates opportunity

Six. Eight. Sixteen.

Those aren’t my children’s ages. Or six-thousand eight hundred and sixteen. Those three numbers represent my life since February:

• 6 houses I’ve stayed in
• 8 hotels visited (including the one I’m in right now typing this)
• 16 different beds within those 14 locations above (including sleeping in 2 different beds at my parent’s house)

Yes, it’s been a real adventure.

We are six months on from that February night when my wife and I packed our bags and headed for a friend’s house in Sammamish before starting an adventure fifteen months in the making. With our kids out of the house, we would re-locate from Seattle to Boston where I’d work at my company’s HQ and we would explore the Northeast. The plan was clear:

New Orleans for a work trip → then England visiting my wife’s family → then Boston in time for spring. Perfectly planned.

Yeah, not happening. Thank you Covid-19.

Reality was: New Orleans → England (side trip to Wales) → Chicago → Florida → back to Chicago → Columbia, MO → Chicago again →Toledo, Ohio → Utica, NY → Cape Cod, MA → Nashua, New Hampshire. Just a few more stops than planned.

If you would have told me at the start of February well actually Chris, in March you will move back in with your parents but without your wife. Hmm concerning. But wait it’s okay, your wife will show up in May but you two won’t be allowed to be in the same room. Still concerning. You’ll be dispatched to your folks’ basement so your wife could “socially distance” from you. To which I would have said “What is social distancing?”.

5 Unexpected benefits of an unexpected year

My wife and I hit far more locales than planned in the past six months but all the detours yielded positive experiences we will remember forever:

1. Deep, quality time with both sets of parents — Married couples in their 50’s don’t normally want to move back in with their parents for months. A week or two visit is normally enough. 3 months? Hmm. My wife and I spent every day with both sets of parents for months and it was wonderful.

Being around them every day let us share the little moments. The conversations in between outings. Preparing dinner. Doing household chores. Gardening. Everyday trips to the supermarket. Sharing new TV shows and ordering a pay-per-view movie on a Sunday night. (My goodness we’d never normally do that!) It also breaks down barriers that typically remain up for shorter visits. After five weeks with my in-laws I’m coming to breakfast wearing pajamas and slippers like it or not people.

Three of our parents are dealing with serious health issues. Extended time allowed us to assist with their respective medical situations and navigate the challenge of the pandemic, quarantines, and rationed trips to the store.

2. Forging a deeper relationship with my uncle — My dad’s youngest brother splits his time between my parent’s house in suburban Chicago and traveling the US. I was in England in March when the news broke that US citizens should get back home quickly. Since I couldn’t visit my parents in Florida due to concerns I’d bring the virus, I descended upon my uncle in Chicago. We were thrown into quarantine for 6 weeks and I learned several things:

• My uncle is cool — My uncle told me great stories of my dad and also about his life. Growing up in the 60's and 70's he got up to adventures as a teenager that I’m sure aren’t possible nowadays, traveled extensively around the country, and held a variety of interesting jobs. A rich life.
• We share a love for many things — For not seeing each other much over the years it turns out we love a lot of the same things: mafia movies, great Clint Eastwood films, The Shawshank Redemption, golf, traveling, and good milkshakes!
• We can taught each other new things — Thanks to my uncle I learned Cool Hand Luke is a great film (yep never saw it I’m embarrassed to say), new podcasts and comedians, and that, yes, Steak and Shake offers half-price banana milkshakes. In return I explained how this platform, Medium, works and introduced him to Better Call Saul. Hopefully, both our lives are richer for the experience.

3. Increased connections with friends and family — My wife and her family put FaceTime through its paces multiple times a week. We Zoom with friends regularly and see some people more than if we still lived 20 minutes apart in Seattle. My brothers and sisters haven’t texted so much. Plus our mom! And for some reason old family photos that should be buried forever suddenly made the rounds. Great laughs and memories all around.

4. The realization that we don’t need a ton of clothes — With most of our clothes boxed in Seattle, we had limited fashion options. My wife and I spent most of May through July working through a rotation of a handful of t-shirts, shorts, and leggings. Leggings didn’t work well for me. And nobody at my work noticed. I understand now why Steve Jobs only wore black mock turtlenecks. Removes all the daily pressure.

5. Opportunity to visit new places — With everyone working from home a colleague advised against getting an apartment in Boston. Go to the Cape for the summer! In a normal 2020 we wouldn’t have lived in Cape Cod and definitely wouldn’t be living in New Hampshire. Going with the flow and taking the unplanned route allowed us to play at the oldest golf course in Cape Cod, walk in the surf after long days of work, and have depth time in an area we’d normally visit for a week.

We have a plan for the remainder of 2020 and will press on. We look forward to new adventures while being settled in one location in Exeter, NH through through May 2021. However no matter what the next few months bring (can it be any nuttier?), we understand there is “positivity” with each change.