There was an old column I read somewhere where a twentysomthing reflected and on his life.

Essentially he stated that in the past his grandparents had stayed in the same town all their lives, and that only once they moved across to the other side of town, less than 20 miles away, but soon after moved back because it just felt too different to them. As a compliment, I heard a story about my two german counterparts. They were pretty different fellows, but still friends. One had settled down, was Catholic, married (I presume happily) had two kids, and had lived in the same town all his life. The other man was a single, Adonis type. He'd traveled to Australia live there a few years, yet eventually he came back.
But the married friend still counted him as a good friend, they'd been friends since childhood. And he noted that "you only know someone is after you've known them a lifetime, and you've seen them through changes in their lives. Even better if they've re-invented themselves multiple times. Only then do you see deep down where someone's heart lies.

In any case he'd lived in the same town all his life, and it seems like his family had lived in that town since, oh... well the middle ages.

I ask my friends where they're from, and nobody claims to be from here. They're all from somewhere else. They all seem to be passing through, consequently they all intend to go to yet some place else.

The stoic german, who's been in the same place since the middle ages contrasts to all my friends. Who's parents moved around a couple of times growing up. Then they went one place for college, and graduated, went another place for graduate school. Then moved somewhere else for work. Always living a sort of nomadic life, even changing apartments yearly. So the ironic thing about this is that I don't expect any of them to stay. I guess they move on again, not because they need to but because that's the only thing they know. Some of them, I don't think will ever settle down.

I guess it exemplifies my friends here. A girl I consider a friend, moved around with her parents and growing up went to a different school every couple of years. By the time she was sixteen she'd lived in New Jersey, the Phillipines, Houston, and a couple of other places. She moved to college in the Boston area. Spent a summer in Mississippi. Took a short term job working in Shenzen, China. Then came back to Cambridge, and now looks like she's going to move to London. I don't blame her, she doesn't really know what she wants to do with her life. And it's fitting if not a little sad that she's doomed to be in love with, a pilot in the air force, a man who can't tell her where he'll be. It's hard to see a person who flies around for a living, committing to any sense of place.