I would seriously love to totally reboot my life, after I'm out of monitoring. Part of this also has to do with the fact that I'm 1 year post divorce so I feel like I will finally have freedom and choices about my life that I didn't have before, AFTER monitoring, obviously. I have NO freedom right now!!

I'd kind of like to explore moving to a different part of the country. Maybe small town (maybe not! Idk). Every once in awhile I will read some post on Facebook or whereve,r "I love where I live, it's just beautiful here". I honestly can't say that, like at all. I've been in Texas for 30 years. I live in a convenient place certainly, a mile to work, 1/2 a mile to a grocery store and gas station & Walgreens. Tons of shops and restaurants near me. But it's just a city, a smaller city outside a huge city. I look around and see more city, shops, traffic lights etc. It's convenient but not "beautiful" by ANY stretch.

So if I were to move, I'd love to go somewhere that I loved to live, where I looked around me and thought "awesome" on a daily basis. Haha, does that exist?? I don't even care about climate right now, I'd just like to hear from people who truly love where they live. Seems like we should ALL love where we live, but in my experience, that's rare.

Prior to my addiction problems, I lived in Charlotte, NC. I absolutely loved and adored that city. I lived there for 11 years. I loved everything about it. At the time, the population was around 900,000. Beautiful city, tons of things to do, boating available on nearby lakes, you could live in the suburbs or the uptown area. Lots a nature nearby, rivers for tubing, hiking, you name it. Quality shopping, decent crime rates, good schools, lots of hospitals to choose from... I mean, I would have been happy dying there.

But we hit financial struggles when some actual medical issues popped up, and we needed help taking care of our young kids outside of available daycare hours. My husband's family had been desperate for us to move close to them in a very teeny city (population 20,000) a state over...they offered to help us out AND to buy us a modest house. I mean, despite how much I did NOT want to leave, at that point, we just could not refuse that offer. So we uprooted.

So, here we are. I hate where we live. There is absolutely nothing to do, the area is fairly economically depressed, the closest city you could describe as big is 2 hours away...and it's a quarter of the size of Charlotte.

I fell into addiction eventually after moving here and then monitoring land, so now we are tied to where we are until I finish this program. My kids are older now, so the issues we had with childcare in Charlotte wouldn't be a problem anymore.

I would absolutely love to move back one day, probably when our youngest hits college. But then again, we kind of think moving out west, like Colorodo or Arizona, would be pretty cool too. Or even being a bit nomadic. Hopefully by then, our credit will have recovered enough to be able to do that.

So, yeah, I hate where I live...and it's worse knowing that once upon a time, I loved where I lived. I miss MY house, the one we paid for. Its was absolutely goregous and we poured 11 years of renovations into it. Cost of living was so low there, we had so much more house and property for the money. Everything was cheaper. We lived very well on our income there. We have almost the same income here...but we struggle just to get by with the bare basics.

I mean, the house I live in isn't mine. It's my in-law's. Sure, it's in the will for us to get it when they pass on, and we will get their house too...but I miss living in a house that I actually earned and owned.

The agreement originally was to pay rent to go toward the cost of the house, but with monitoring, we haven't been able to make payments for a long time. They aren't giving us a hard time, but I definitely feel like my "adult card" has been revoked. We just resumed rent payments recently.

Anywho, you should absolutely move when you can! A fresh start sounds absolutely amazing and that's one dream I hope to chase one day.

Best wishes,

Eris

I have recently (within the last two months) purchased a travel trailer. This is so when I am done with everything, I can take off and go where I want to go. I also began living in it (me and my small dog). It should save me money and enable me to not feel so strapped with all the financial requirements.

As for loving where I live, yes, I do. I am in a major city in Texas. However, I have lived in Colorado and AZ. Absolutely HATED AZ. I got tired of dusting EVERY SINGLE DAY! Dust, dirt and cactus are the only things it offered, IMO. That was Tucson.

I was born and raised in CO and I do love it there. However, thanks to the legalization of MJ, the cost of living has skyrocketed. I do miss it and go back often. The small towns there are my fave, but, I really like the city and the things to do in my large city.

I hope you get a chance to explore and find the place that is right for you!

Sarasota, Gulf coast of Florida. The cost of living in my particular city is a bit high but that is because of all the hoity-toity snowbirds with money. Cost of living is lower not too far north and south. We've got a great arts scene if you're into that.

Nursing wise, best of all we are banging close to a great, BIG, highly respectable, nonprofit hospital system that has a low opinion of these programs and will give people a chance. I moved here to work there. (Also family is here) That I am taking a break has nothing to do with them and frankly all to do with the program. When I return to working, it will be there, but I digress....

It's a few minutes to the beach to just sit and watch the water or not a far trip in any direction for the major Florida parks. Don't know what else I can say. I'm a native of the state so maybe I'm partial. I've lived in other parts (Gainesville, Lakeland) but here is just pretty cool.

Sarasota, Gulf coast of Florida. The cost of living in my particular city is a bit high but that is because of all the hoity-toity snowbirds with money. Cost of living is lower not too far north and south. We've got a great arts scene if you're into that.

Nursing wise, best of all we are banging close to a great, BIG, highly respectable, nonprofit hospital system that has a low opinion of these programs and will give people a chance. I moved here to work there. (Also family is here) That I am taking a break has nothing to do with them and frankly all to do with the program. When I return to working, it will be there, but I digress....

It's a few minutes to the beach to just sit and watch the water or not a far trip in any direction for the major Florida parks. Don't know what else I can say. I'm a native of the state so maybe I'm partial. I've lived in other parts (Gainesville, Lakeland) but here is just pretty cool.

Sounds like heaven!