I really enjoyed reading this. It made me recall this article about a family who picked up and put their kids in Russian and watched them adapt. Super super interesting. I swear this post was on hubski, but can't seem to find it now, so if anyone finds it please let me know. My boyfriend moved all over the US and Southern California growing up and never stayed in the same city/house for more than a year or so, and now pretty much never wants to move again. I, on the other hand, traveled and vacationed extensively but always had my "home". Now I love moving and finding new places and discovering a variety of cultures and towns. I also love a fresh clean apartment that I can transform into a home for the next year or two. I would ask the author: Do you find yourself wanting to relocate more now that you are older or do you have an overwhelming desire to stay put, to perhaps make up for the excessive moving you endured as a child?
Author here! I don't really see it as relocation, since what I desire is a job that allows me to go back and forth between Pakistan, Yemen, and whatever country that has an institution which gives me patronage. I do have very firm attachments to my friends, though, but I've lost my pretenses about "home." Though nearly all of that has to do with my PTSD rather than moving around-- I have family members who would say that they want stability because they never had it before, and others who say that they need to feel more in flux, which could just mean living in a city.