When the Move Is Personal

Camelot recently completed its most special long-distance move: delivering my youngest and her partner to their new home in Washington State. While all my clients' journeys are important to me (after all, everyone's home is their castle), naturally I kept a close eye on this particular move from beginning to end. And it afforded me a closer than-average look at the anatomy of a move.

While this multi-stage move was completed within two weeks and scheduled less than a month in advance (it helps to know a guy in the industry, wink, wink), its roots reach back a few years when my LA-based daughter and her boyfriend-now-fiancé decided that they ultimately wanted to live in Washington State. A shift to remote work here, a downsizing there, add an engagement ring … one step after the other, and finally they were ready to jump when the right-sized home at the right price became available.

That's when Camelot got the call. That's typically when we first hear from clients: when it's time to schedule the moving van. However, as this move demonstrates, Moving Day is only one small part of the journey. By the time Camelot shows up, a move has often been underway for months, sometimes years. And I think that's true of a lot of the bigger life changes. There are often several smaller moves before the move: perhaps first moving our aspirations, then shifting our goals, and eventually changing jobs, career paths, or transitioning into retirement.

Not all of us plan quite that far ahead. We may live week to week, task to task, adding items to our checklist as they appear on the calendar, like the twice-yearly dentist visit. Life has a way of filling whatever space we give it.

But perhaps by recognizing that the roots of a move of any sort begin years in advance, we can afford ourselves a little extra room. Room to change our minds. Room to make a few mistakes and fix them.

Room to move back to California closer to your folks!