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How far do you live from the place you were born?
I saw this as a Facebook meme question, but I think it's actually fairly interesting.
I saw this as a Facebook meme question, but I think it's actually fairly interesting.
One mile. I was born at home, and my mother didn't move much. Neither have I.
Hey, we're both in the one-mile club! That's awesome. I thought there'd be more of us.
1270.9km
This is the furthest I have ever lived from the city of my birth. That's what happens when you follow love across European borders.
But I've spent the bulk of my life varying lengthy distances away from where I was born. I left aged four and never grew a close personal connection with the city, despite yearly visits throughout my childhood.
It would be interesting to live on a continent where it was easier to move, or even just visit, country to country. The only option I have that's particularly easy for me to travel to is the USA, and for a variety of reasons, I am not particularly interested in travelling or moving there.
14,900 kms away, moved to the States from Australia. Really glad I moved tbh
I’m curious, why did you move to the US? What do you like about it vs Australia?
Google says... 10,212 miles. Pretty far! My family moved when I was three, though, and since then I've only lived in the same state in the US.
Holy smokes! That's 16,500-ish kilometers for my metric brethren, which is far. I've never actually been that far from my home at all, even for visiting. The farthest I've been is about 5,500km away (3,400 miles).
Oh man, I get this so much
Your whole comment is a beautiful story, but this part hit me:
When I was younger and living 4,500km from home, I got the call that my grandmother had passed away. It was hard; I had said my goodbyes to her before leaving to go west, and I had intellectually accepted when I left that I wasn't going to see her again. But intellectual acceptance is a far cry from emotional understanding, and hit me right in the chest. That was over 20 years ago, and I remember that feeling really well, and I also remember the feeling 10 years later when my grandfather passed. At that time I was in my current house; I had visited him recently. I had intellectually accepted the inevitability of his imminent passing; I had said my goodbye to him before leaving his house the week before, but as before that was far from emotional understanding, and his passing hit me right in the chest.
With the passage of time, the thing that stuck with me was that the pain for both was similar; one was not worse because of the distance. I did not feel guilt because I'd lived my life, and I didn't feel worse because I was farther away when my grandmother passed. I just missed them both. I'm not quite sure what the point is that I'm grasping at, but maybe it's that you shouldn't fear living your nomadic life because you might get that call, because you might get that call when you live next door, and we carry the people we love with us, so regardless of our physical distance, we are always close.
About 20 kilometers. My mom used to live closer to the center of the city which I live in (never to be confused with the good areas with good QoL of the city) and closer to that hospital. She moved with my dad to a house that IIRC my grandfather built right next to where he lived just before I was born and thats where I and my parents have lived for for my entire life since he was not planning to be a landlord.
11,117 km. One of the furthest places possible from my birth place, much to my parents' chagrin.
Immigrated twice in my life - once for school and once for love, a different continent reach time. It's been 15 years since I left and it's only getting harder. Immigration is a trauma that I don't think I'll ever get over. I remember reading books at school about tragic characters leaving their homes to come to my homeland, and the gaping wound it left on their souls. They described their feelings of being uprooted and disconnected, never really feeling at home - I never understood it. To my young self it sounded like the whining of an old senile. Move on, old man, nobody cares about the old country. This country is so much better, just forget all this old baggage and commit to here and now. How can you even miss a country that tried to exterminate you?
I never understood it then, but I do now. I miss my homeland a lot. I miss my friends and I miss my family. But most of all I miss the past. I miss a country that is no longer there, that has changed and shifted beyond recognition. I miss the family I had when I was young. I miss old songs I never cared for when I was there. I miss the stories my dad told me of that country. But mostly I miss me, I miss my youth.
It's an awful feeling. Primarily because nobody can understands it - not my family who still lives there, not my wife who never has. I tell her stories of that county and my childhood and I can see how they don't click and how (just like me here) she would never understand that mentality, that history, the context in which these stories are told. And the worst part is - now that I have a newborn, I know that one day he will look at me with those same eyes. Move on, old man. Nobody cares.
I don't understand it and, in contrast to you, I think I never will.
My dad was in the armed forces so until I was about 11 we moved every year or two, including 18 months in a caravan! I've never been able to understand the feeling they talk about - the words make sense but I have no experience to relate to the feeling. I've settled down now I'm married with kids but have no feeling of attachment to places.
When people venerate their roots I can't relate at all. You (plural) may argue it's sad or I'm incomplete or missing out but I've never felt that way. Anyway I don't have a concurrent lifetime of experiences to compare :).
As the bird flies I am about 1.5km from the exact place I was born, which is the hospital in the city in which I live. In my brain, I think of this region (mid southern Ontario, Canada) as "home", but it's not necessarily just my city. My parents live just outside the city, still in the house in which I was raised.
I'm not sure if this is normal or abnormal. I have lived in other places, though; most notably, I moved 4500km away to the other side of the country for a while in my 20s, and spent various short stints in other locations some distance away during University, none longer than a semester. The main reason that I'm in the city in which I was born is because it's a central location for work for me and my wife, though that has now become less of a reason with the pandemic - my business sold it's office and are now distributed / work from home for the foreseeable future - but we have roots here now.
I did love having moved across the country; I met new people, did new things, and explored new places, and it was great. I enjoy being "home" now as well, though.
A little over 5400 kilometers (~3300 miles).
For several years it was around 8400 km (~5200 miles).
The longest I've lived on the same continent before moving to another continent is 11 years. The shortest I've lived on a continent before moving to a different one is around 18 months. I'm currently at a little over 6 years on this continent.
I work in a global industry where leadership is expected to move around to cover different positions in their multinational. I've been very lucky not to move more across oceans in the last decade.
~2300 miles (~3800 km). I lived in the place I was born for about 23 years and it never felt like home. I couldn't wait to leave, and I haven't been back in over a decade. I'll probably go back when my spouse's remaining parent passes. I haven't decided if I'll go back when my parents pass.
I left my home at 22 and never went back, highly unlikely I ever will. Home is where the heart is after all
8316 miles between the two cities according to https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/distanceresult.html. Not sure how accurate that is.
12,571 km, different continent, basically other side of the world. Spent the first half of my adolescents there, then spent the rest of my life living within about 40km of where I am now.
Amusingly, <50 miles. But I've moved around a ton and lived all over the US (and even Germany) - just happened to end up in the same area for a job, and haven't quite felt pressured enough to leave.
About a 20 minute drive, furthest I've been is 1500 miles for a week long trip.
Unfortunately, I presently sit just under 10 miles from the hospital in which I was born. I've maxed out at about 55 miles away.
I intend to change that fairly soon to something in the neighborhood of 600-700 miles. The roots that keep me here are all but gone, those that remain are in the process of moving with me.
My family moved about 6 hours (driving) away from where I was born when I was very young. I lived in that general area for 30 years, then moved 2 hours closer to where I was born. That said, I'm contemplating a move all of the way to the opposite side of the US, so the answer might be very different in a year. :)
~650 miles by car from the hospital where I was born. I have lived as far away as ~2300 miles.
About 980 miles. Family moved away from where I was born when I was about 9. I moved away from that home when I was 20. Then moved again for a new job when I was 30 or so. I'm now 40, and this is almost the longest I have lived in a single area (I've moved between houses/apartments a few times since moving here).
I currently live about 100 miles (~160km) from where I was born. The farthest away I've lived is around 750 miles (~1200km) away.
~2900km
For most of my life it was around 800km but I have since moved as an adult to the other coast.
2328 Miles, can't wait to mover either closer or further as I'm not too fond of where I'm currently at.
I lived most of my life within a 1 hour radius of where I was born, but now I’m about 450 miles from there.
About 2 miles. currenttly Furthest i've lived away is about 50mils
Currently? About 12mi (~20km). Personal best? 1769mi (~2800km).
8650mi (13920km) away from home. It's funny how much I expect home to stay the same but even a short 3 month period away knocks me off balance when I return because so much has changed in the interim period. Home never feels like home unless I live there, and going back home every now and then only drives home (ha) the point...
About 5460 miles!
Around 2,000 miles. Up until a year ago, around 20 miles.