I was lucky enough to be a travel writer in my twenties; I got to live my familiar, nomadic life.
I moved around a lot as a kid as a result of my father’s job.
My mother always dreaded moving, but I loved it. One of my favorite things about moving to a new region was experiencing a new climate. Now that I’m an adult, I’ve moved for this exact purpose multiple times. I tried my hand in a hot climate in the United States for about a year, but found that no matter how many times I had my HVAC system serviced, and how often I took breaks just to be in the air conditioning, I just couldn’t get cool during the summer. So, I moved to a colder climate in the center of the country. I was entirely unprepared for a severe winter; my neighbors warned me to have an HVAC technician inspect my furnace before winter started, but I thought they were just trying to scare their new neighbor. I should have listened. I’ll never forget answering the door for my HVAC technician during a snowstorm, after my heating system had gone kaput in the middle of the night. Needless to say, I only survived one winter in this climate. After living in twenty different states over the last thirty years of my life, I’ve decided that a mild climate is where I belong. Cool evenings and mornings, with some seasonal changes, work best for my lifestyle. But, no matter where I go, I’ve learned the importance of making sure my HVAC system can keep up with the climate; you don’t know how dependent you are on your heater or air conditioner until it doesn’t work!