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19AN1TEG11 DOCUMENT A Where you live has a bigger impact on happiness and health than you might imagine By Jenny Rough, May 14, 2018 When my husband and I moved from Los Angeles to Washington for his job, I saw only the cons in our new city: overcast skies, solemn
19AN1TEG11 DOCUMENT A Where you live has a bigger impact on happiness and health than you might imagine By Jenny Rough, May 14, 2018 When my husband and I moved from Los Angeles to Washington for his job, I saw only the cons in our new city: overcast skies, solemn monuments and women wearing an accessory I’d forgotten about from junior high dances: pantyhose1. The humidity was oppressive, the gray a wet blanket. 5 I wanted to move back to Los Angeles, where the sun gave a warm welcome, the open sky made me feel free and purple flowers hung like grape clusters from the jacaranda trees. […] The average American may move almost a dozen times in a lifetime, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Americans move for all sorts of reasons: jobs, bigger houses, 10 retirement, family or — as was the case in my early 20s when I packed my Jeep and headed to California — because we think it’ll make us happier. […] Stephan Goetz, a professor of agricultural and regional economics at Penn State, published a study that showed suburban residents were happier than rural or metro folks. Interestingly, people who hadn’t moved at all in the past five years also reported being 15 happier. “This may be related to not having to find new friends and social networks,” Goetz says. Another study shows that close friendships, even more than family attachments, are key to health and happiness, especially as we age. […] When I was a teenager, my family relocated frequently for my dad’s job. As an introvert, 20 I preferred a good book to slumber parties2, and the moves hit me hard. Home was my sanctuary, my safe place. Meaningful friendships came slowly. Every time we uprooted, those hard-won social networks were torn away, and I silently swore I’d never become a trailing spouse3. Over a sushi dinner a decade into my life in Los Angeles and 2 1/ years into my marriage, 2 25 Ron told me he wanted to take a job in D.C. I pointed my chopsticks at the palm trees. “We’re eating outside in February.” Despite the refrain that lapped inside me like ocean waves — don’t move; don’t move; don’t move — we moved. 1 Pantyhose = des collants 2 Slumber party = soirée entre copines (au cours de laquelle on regarde des films, on discute et on