Where You Live

Every self-help book in the airport bookstore will tell you to change your mindset. Fewer of them will tell you the truth: it's often easier to just change your zip code. You've heard the sayings ... You're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. If you can't change the people around you, change the people around you are around. They all point at the same "loophole". If you're stuck in a bad job, a bad friend group, a hometown that never quite let you become yourself, the fastest lever to pull isn't willpower. It's geography. New places don't know the old you. The parts of yourself you never loved get left at the county line. The parts you've been meaning to grow finally have room to stretch out. Yes, you're now a stranger in a strange land. But strange lands hand you something familiar ones never will: a blank page, and nobody around to tell you what you used to write on it. Whereas travel may loosen the collar, moving rips the shirt from our back. One's a…