One of the things that has made America exceptional - compared to other crisis-prone and class-conflicted countries - is that it has long enjoyed a benefit no other modern nation in the world could claim: the ability to engage in ceaseless, endless movement outward.
When I was a little kid we moved to Tulsa, then to St. Louis and, by the time I was in kindergarten, we lived in Springfield, Missouri. There I basically grew up.
Right after graduation, I married Samuel Fisher Babbitt, an academic administrator. I spent the next ten years in Connecticut, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C., raising our children, Christopher, Tom, and Lucy.
I moved to New York at 17 to go to school. At 24, I moved back to Ithaca, then moved back to New York at 28.
Maybe I'm a serial regional writer. First here, then there, across the map.
In my early formative years, back in the territory days, if a guy didn't get along for whatever reason or didn't get over or things didn't work out, or he just wanted to relocate, he had other territories to go to to make, if not the same amount of money, substantially more or less.
My family moved a lot as a kid. We started in Colorado, where I lived for five years. We moved to Chicago for two years, to San Francisco for one year, Connecticut for seven, Oregon for a couple years, and then I went to school. So I was always moving, I'm still always moving.
I've been everywhere man. I'm from L.A., though.
I went to university for three years, but I wasn't in Ottawa for three years.
I moved out to L.A. to pursue entertainment beyond social media. Because I could have made Vines from Ohio.
Before moving to Delhi at the age of 17, I had only travelled to Patna or Varanasi outside Belwa.
I'm glad I'm Southern. I'm the Southerner who's very Southern in that she left to move to New York.
I was born in New York. I grew up in San Francisco, Long Beach, and Los Angeles.
My aim was never to be an American star; otherwise, I would have moved to Los Angeles.
I went through so many phases because I moved schools a lot. I grew up primarily in Connecticut, but also here in L.A. for five years.
My parents left Iran in 1979 and moved to France and then moved to the U.S. My brother was born in France and I was born in New York, and then we moved to D.C.
Why should you stay in one place and one country if they're not offering you a job? It doesn't make sense!
I've lived all over the country - Michigan, California, Texas, New Jersey, Rhode Island and, now, Maine - but I never understood springtime until I spent 25 years farming in the Ozarks.
I was born in Boston, but then I went down to Virginia. We spent a little time in Maryland, and then were in Virginia by the time I was seven. What struck me the most was that my mother thought that she had gone to the middle of nowhere, and we would still drive four hours for her to get her hair cut in Washington, D.C.
I was born in San Antonio, TX, but moved to Lakewood, CO in elementary school. Then, I moved to Valley Center, CA in high school.
My agents do not like my choice to work only in New York and Israel - it's not a good career move.
Crucial to understanding federalism in modern day America is the concept of mobility, or 'the ability to vote with your feet.' If you don't support the death penalty and citizens packing a pistol - don't come to Texas. If you don't like medicinal marijuana and gay marriage, don't move to California.
When I was growing up, I just wanted to be somewhere else. I didn't like living in Knockemstiff, and I figured when I got older, I'd move off to some big city.
I was born in Boston, and when I was two and a half, my parents moved to Minneapolis. And then from there, when I was five, we moved back to Portugal. But before that, a lot of family members had come to visit us, and we had been back to Portugal many times because my whole family lived there.
I was born in Japan, and then we went to Korea, and I was raised in Nebraska.
