The video I posting today is about why this has been on my mind for years — and why lately it's started to feel less hypothetical.
But there's another question underneath that one.
What would Europe actually have to give me?
Because I already have a good life.
I have a house I know. Friends I've had for years. A city I understand. Work that functions. A family routine that took a long time to build.
I'm not trying to escape some miserable existence.
So if I'm eventually going to disrupt all of that, what am I actually hoping to get in return?
The first thing is probably the simplest.
I want more of daily life to happen outside my house.
Where I live in the USA, most things start with getting in the car. Dinner. Coffee. Seeing friends. Running an errand. Going somewhere interesting.
I don't hate driving. I've done it my entire adult life.
I just find myself increasingly attracted to places where more of ordinary life is sitting outside the front door.
I want to walk somewhere for dinner because it's five minutes away.
I want to leave the house without necessarily knowing exactly what I'm going to do.
And in the places where it's possible, I want water to be part of normal life rather than somewhere I specifically decide to go.
That's one reason Nice and Cascais have become so interesting to me.
Then there's the social piece.
I don't need nightlife every night. That's not what I'm looking for.
I want enough people around, enough restaurants, enough activity and enough adult life that being social doesn't always require organizing an event.
That's one of the reasons I keep questioning some of the smaller places I love.
They're beautiful.
But would I actually have a life there?
Then there's geography.
I was looking at flights from Rome recently and realized how radically my definition of "close" would change.
A couple of hours could put me in another country.
Even living somewhere like Nice or Florence changes the map in a way that's hard for me to fully appreciate from California.
That matters to me more than I expected.
And underneath all of this, I think I'm looking for a different rhythm.
Not necessarily slower. I actually like stimulation.
Maybe just less friction between me and the things I enjoy doing.
That's probably the closest I've gotten to describing it.
But there's obviously another side.
I'd be giving up familiarity. Friends I've had for decades. A home I know how to live in. Family routines. The enormous convenience of already knowing how everything works.
And that's why I don't think this decision is really: Do I like Europe?
Of course I like Europe.
The question is: does a life there give me enough that I'm willing to give something up for it?
That's what I'm really testing when I compare Nice, Cascais, Florence, Rome or somewhere I haven't even seriously considered yet.
The places may change. The trade I'm evaluating really doesn't.
— Joe
If you've made a move like this — or you're seriously considering one — what would the new life actually have to give you before you'd be willing to leave the old one?