A FRIEND has been visiting from New York this week.
She moved there from Glasgow about a year ago and already has no intention of moving back. Can you blame her? She's got a job, an apartment, a boyfriend and, well, she's got New York (she also, bizarrely, has an American accent). We've got crap weath
er, Northern Rock... and all the best stuff has gone from the January sales. But, hey, at least the dollar is still weaker than the pound.
My friend, Gill, has basically done what the rest of us dream about while we're hanging out the washing or watching old episodes of Sex and the City. She fancied a change so handed in her notice, took off across the pond, got herself a job in a bar and has never looked back. Next week another friend is leaving for London to start a job that will involve travelling all over the world, my sister is always threatening to move to Madrid, and my partner has just gone on holiday to Malaysia.
All this globe-trotting has got me thinking. What I mean to say is, it's got me worrying about the question that eternally plagues us young(ish), always-looking-for-something-to-freak-out-about types. You know the one that falls in seriousness somewhere between 'what do I fancy for dinner?' and 'should I change my identity and start all over again?'. Yes, it's the million-dollar 'what am I doing with my life?'.
It's not that I'm miserable or anything. I would even go so far as to say I'm generally happy with my lot. It's just that when we see people shaking it up and trying something new, just for the hell of it, it makes us look again at our own situation. And even if we like what we see, there's always the question of whether things could be better.
Here are some of the questions that have been flitting through my frazzled head in the past 30 seconds. Should I be moving to New York? Should I be heading back to London, from whence I came? Glasgow or Edinburgh? Should I return to university and do the PhD I always said I would? When am I going to fit in children? Should I try to write a novel? Go blonde? What do I fancy for dinner?
Actually, I think we're overly obsessed with change. It's not enough to do a job you like, go out with someone you love and live in the same country all your life. No, to be truly fulfilled we have to change jobs (and partners, probably) every two years to 'stay stimulated', take time out to see the world, vary our diets and get a new 'look' every season. If change is indeed as good as a rest, it's as if we're permanently on holiday. Except, of course, it's much less relaxing. No wonder I'm fantasising about running away to New York.
The full article contains 501 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
