Moving to small town America

 

The year 2022 was a year of transition.  Transition from the COVID to the post-COVID Era.  At least I’m hopeful that there is not a rebound for having made the move prematurely.  In our family it was also a transition to retirement life or at least one of less engagement into income-producing activities.   Motivated by our grandchildren, we moved from a big(er) USA city to small(er) town in another state.  The last part of the year it was officially as Georgia residents in the town of Athens.

The change to the smaller city is not as if it has been huge.  Our social life in Miami was limited to family and a few friends.   Most of the family moved during the year to different parts and only a few remain in Miami.  Most of the social interactions in Miami had to do with vendors or service people to our properties, here we have a few family members and again, service people that tend to our house maintenance needs.  To change that we joined a group of over-50 that make up a Life-Long Learning organization associated with the University of Georgia (UGA), but for one reason or another we have only participated in just few classes and social events. 

Athens has significantly fewer cars on the road than Miami but being the roads much narrower than in Miami, traffic continues to be a factor, at least during rush-hour moments.  Distances to the essential places, tend to be closer in a way, at least closer if you are already driving.  Back in Miami I used to do a lot of the day-to-day activities such as supermarket, bank and a few doctors appointments by walking or using the metro.  Here walking is just for exercise since most other things require driving, even if for a short distance.

We have also taken advantage of the free time and the proximity to the UGA to expand our learning opportunities.  All the history that I failed to learn in my college days, I’m now devouring as if it had just happened.   I’m fascinated to connect seemingly unrelated items by learning what else could have been happening elsewhere in the world, and also the level of understanding or ignorance on ancillary topics such as medicine and science available at the time.  It’s exciting to have been granted the opportunity of some longevity combined with some level of intelligence to continue learning at least for a few more months.

As the year comes to a close, I’m reminded of the many that were not granted the privilege of living past 2022.  Lives cut short by COVID or Opioids accounted this year for another decrease in the average lifespan of Americans.  At a time when we could be harvesting the rewards of years of scientific research, we are afflicted by misinformation and despair which in combination have poisoned the trajectory we were in before the days of social media and alternate truths.  I wish the Make America Great Again chant become more like Let America Trust Science Again, and that our future be guided by people smarter than me who built on knowledge generated by generations of immigrants and natives that founded this country.  Maybe too much to wish.