Upping Sticks

[EvianBaby]

Have any of you ever just upped sticks and started a new life somewhere completely new to you?

I currently live with my Dad (at the age of nearly 28!!!) and have been making plans to get my own place next year. I was initially thinking of just moving to the town where I work which is about 15 miles from home currently but I've been thinking maybe I could just sod off somewhere completely different, new job, new people etc.

I don't really have any ties where I am currently. Not much of a social life and although two of my siblings live close by (one just round the corner and the other in the town I work in) the rest of my immediate family a spread across the country from Lancs down to Cornwall so I don't think I'd be missing anything in that respect as I hardly see most of them anyway.

What are your experiences of this sort of thing? Were you glad you did it? Did you get what you wanted out of it or was it a complete nightmare?

(got to go into London now so I won't be responding for a while)

[Bambiagain]

I've done it three times. The first two (between a hundred and a hundred and fifty miles each time), I moved with the company I was working for - the second time was a completely new job within the company. The first time I did know people in the area, but not the second, and I moved a long way from my family. On both occasions I made friends, partly through work and partly through outside interests. About twenty years after the second move, nearly five years ago, I moved to Germany to be with a man I met while he was working in England. Things are going very pear-shaped there at the moment, so don't ask me to comment on that aspect!! However, through my interests again, I have made friends and have a good social circle. Despite being not in the first flush of youth and having to learn a new language, which is a bit of a struggle. I'm not sure if the third move would have been so easy without the internet, mobile phones and the general ease of communications nowadays.

I would say that if you do have interests that bring you into contact with other people, and if you can find a suitable job and (most important) are not too shy and retiring, then go for it if you feel it's what you really want.

[The Builder]

"Sodding off" has a lot going for it, Evi. I've done that many times, ever since I was about eighteen. Being on your own in a strange place, does make you try that bit harder to make friends.
Good luck :o)

[pa___ul3]

when I was 22, working in a tax credit office as an admin clerk after Uni, spoke to my old flat mate from Granada (on my year abroad) who had moved to Barcelona, he said he had a spare room in his flat so I thought 'sod it, yeah!'. Got a graduate loan and some savings and headed out there. Was meant to look for a job but with no luck but had 3 amazing months out there!
Since then I tried the same with Tenerife but came back after 2 weeks when I found out my flatmate, a french lass, was a genuine psycho, and I've been and done a ski season in Italy. Another fantastic experience! I also moved to Ipswich with work but the timing was a bot wrong, broke up with my girlfriend after 2 weeks of being down there and had no friends as I was working in Felixstowe but living in Ipswich and I just couldn't hack the solitude with that frame of mind.

[firewatch]

I moved somerset to herefordshire knowing no one really-hard to start with but it worked itself out. Bro moved somerset to stockton on tees and wont come back lol despite a breakdown in his relationship! go for it!

[mccfluff]

yes moved to tamworth from bristol on my own, as soon as i get enough cash together i'll bugger off somehwere else

[netibiza]

At the age of 26 I upped sticks and moved from NW London to Ibiza to get away from an abusive partner, best thing I ever did. Went back 100yrs and life was super.

[ChuckFickens]

Yep, I've done it, moved out from my parents and moved about 120 miles away to Brighton, don't regret doing it as it got me away from a life that was heading in a bad direction and allowed me to sort things out and make a fresh start.... I still say I must be the only person ever that's moved to Brighton to get away from drugs :)

[carolegif]

We've moved many times to other parts of the country with OH's job and before that with my Dad's job - I had been to 9 schools by the time I was 13!

Then 7 years ago we moved from Cambridge to Devon, leaving our children and grandchildren behind - they didn't like it, but love the free holidays!!!

[jon1968]

Work has taken me all over the world for anything from 3 months to 3 years+. All I would suggest is that to form a new social circle you need to have other interests and it’s a doddle, else you end up working and socialising with the same people. For me it’s darts, pool & football on the boozy side, and golf & cycling on the more active side, so you join a league or a club or a pub team. As with any group dynamic, you then filter the people you’re associating with and that leads to friends of friends of friends of friends and within weeks you’re settled.

In this day and age you’re physically never more than a day away from anywhere and if you need to keep in touch you’ve webcams and Skype and whatnot. Go where you want and give it a go.

[EvianBaby]

Wow, thanks for all your answers. I've read them all and apart from the odd little glitch it seems almost 100% positive experiences for all of you.

At the moment I don't have any sort of idea where I would want to go. I could just spin a globe and see where my finger lands - although I might have to eliminate non English speaking countries.

Aside from getting involved in social things outside of any job I might find (which I have to admit I think I would struggle with), have you got any other bits of advice if I decided to make the move?

[tenrec]

All I will say (IMO) don't up sticks to get away from problems. They will still be in your head when you arrive somewhere new. Good luck.

[woofgang]

what tenrec said.

[boxtops]

Yes, I've done it - first time I left home (after broken engagement) and went to Scotland, knew nobody but had a job to go to. A few years later, moved to Midlands with then-OH work, knew nobody. Few years later, on my own again, moved to the South Coast - then moved over to Kent on my own with work, where I know nobody but had a job. It's great, you make new friends, life has to be what you make it. Join clubs, new new places. I'd do it again.