Left Foot Right Foot: Perpetually in Motion

In the past three years of my life there have been seven different places i've called home. Some stays were briefer than others, some were far, some near, some were for work while others for preference. I've long accepted that I struggle with planting my feet. Laying down roots has been a goal that's eluded me for some time. The idea of even semi-permanence whilst being confined to a single place is a difficult concept for me to wrap my head around. I often tell myself it's because I haven't landed in the right place yet. Though no one can tell me it's been from a lack of trying..

My first move was one embarked on by thousands of 18-year olds every year: college. It was a car drive of just 25 minutes, as I moved to campus at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Funny enough it felt as though I was much further when I slept that first night. The distance was practically a straight shot from my house. A couple turns and straight down Braddock highway and done. Even living on campus for four years I was routinely off someplace else. Many of those times I was in DC, as the capitol was a 25 minutes metro ride away. I spent whatever time I wasn't studying gallivanting off campus with friends, spent countless nights at my local hookah bar, took nighttime walks off grounds, and travelled to five different countries within a single semester alone. One of these trips abroad was to Iceland for an entire week during midterm season my senior year. I had no good reason to go, except the fact that I wanted to.

After I graduated from college, my first official job took me the furthest I would go to date. It was an english teaching position at a private language school in Yangzhou, China. A whopping 7,400 miles away from home. Apart from college, it was my first major move from home. And it gave the phrase "jump into the deep end" a whole new meaning. Because I never had a prior long-distance move to compare China with, I learned to hit the ground running. Everything imaginable was different from what I was familiar with. There was of course the obvious things: language, architecture, social habits, to even the most mundane things like traffic patterns. Once I settled in, I joked it was a good thing I signed a contract for a 14 month period otherwise who knows if I would've remained that long. Of course, even in a contractual agreement I became itchy to adventure again. This is where the many national Chinese holidays provided a breath of fresh air. Throughout my 14 months in China, I travelled to multiple domestic hotspot cities, as well as Hong Kong, South Korea, Cambodia, and Thailand. Whether it was domestic or foreign travel during my time in China, I would hit the ground with as many steps as I could. My most notorious trip was in Shanghai during Chinese New Year's, when I toured the city and walked 43,000 steps (21.7 miles) in a single day. Once I had retired to my hotel room, my feet were sore beyond words to describe and even pulsated for 15 minutes. It's that very sensation why I travel; that pulsating, semi-numb feeling in your feet that is utter ecstasy. Soon enough I had trudged through East Asia for 14 months and finally returned home.

During my two month respite at home, I caught up with friends and family before I embarked onto my next jump. Soon enough it was February and it was time for me to start my new position in Moscow. My stay there was briefer than China, as I lived in Moscow for only several months. The city was massive, a true concrete jungle housing over 5 million people more than New York City. I was privileged to stay in the Novocheremushkinskaya District, just a 20 minute metro ride from the famed St. Peter's Basilica. I lived with my landlord, Natalia, whose flat was modern and spacious. I had a week before I started my teaching lessons, and during that time I explored the endless districts within the capitol's limits. The metro system itself is renowned for being an underground maze, and the interior architecture was decorated as if for royalty. The week my lessons began was the same week I routinely hopped on various metro lines, each one leading to various corners of the city. This is when I saw how different each district was from the other. Some were less developed than others, some boasted streets of luxury shopping, others were heavily populated with students at the prestigious Moscow State University, and some were dedicated to display that incredible Eastern Orthodox architecture. All of my excursions were done on a solo basis, as unlike my school in China, most foreign teachers operated independently. At times this definitely enhanced my feeling of solitude. However, I often feel most confident and secure when left in my own company. Soon enough, it seemed like time was fast-forwarded and I found myself back home in NoVa.

I lived at home in Clifton for the following couple months whilst job searching. I stumbled upon a legal position with a major IP law firm in downtown DC. A few months into the job and I move to Arlington, VA just outside DC. This was my first apartment in my home country. In the beginning, it was almost odd hearing everyone speak English and seeing them practice the same cultural norms I learned. I lived in the Arlington neighborhood of Rosslyn, the same neighborhood that attaches to Georgetown via Key Bridge. However, I was finishing the lease of the roommate I replaced and soon found myself apartment searching again. As coincidence (or not) would have it, I moved to the Arlington neighborhood of Clarendon, finishing yet another sublease. Clarendon is the lushest of the Arlington neighborhoods. Admittedly I couldn't complain about its central location and prime-time brunch spots, not to mention it was a city I always wanted to live in. I spent all of Summer 2020 at my Clarendon apartment until once again, the lease ran its course and it was time for me to move on. In October that same year I moved down the road to Ballston in Arlington to my coolest apartment yet. I was on the 16th floor, with my view facing the main street in the neighborhood, where the road runs between an entire strip of high-rise glass luxury residential buildings and shops surrounding every side. Something I miss the most about this spot was the view at night, where the building lights made the street glitter. In the distance, you could see across the Georgetown Waterfront and into DC. There wasn't another view in Arlington that could've beaten it.

Up to this point I had gone from Clifton to Yangzhou, then to Moscow, back to Clifton, onto Rosslyn, then Clarendon, and finally Ballston. My seventh and most recent move has now brought me up to White Plains, NY for law school. It's been about seven weeks now and I feel as though i've acclimated well enough to the city. It's also a great spot considering the city lies 35 minutes north of the Big Apple via metro. While i've yet to hop onto Metro North and taken the trip down, I've taken time to explore practically every surrounding village around White Plains. This is a huge perk as it presents an opportunity to intimately see Westchester County. The villages themselves are idyllic and their main streets are popular aesthetic attractions. Also, every village's main street has a coffee shop where I can get work done. They're often my escape route off campus whenever I feel cramped. No one said living on campus was easy, but the proximity to class is a sure plus.

Now that it's almost been two months here in White Plains, I'm already fantasizing about my next possible move. Whether that looks like the streets of NYC or my dream cities of Seattle and Portland, that's a future me problem...