Around the world by way of Pittsburgh.

When I was in school, I expected people to move around. And they did. Towards the end of my time in Philadelphia, I had a pretty even mix of students and friends that I thought of as having normal jobs. Now, five years later, many of the normal job friends have stayed put, at least citywise, while most of the students have moved elsewhere. And now, five+ years later, many of the post-student friends are on their second or even third hop. (Readers, you know who you are!) This is normal and expected.

When I moved to Seattle, I made a couple of friends who were students but more friends who had normal jobs. So how has it happened that people are moving around anyway? In the last two years, we've had friends from Seattle move to:

• Dublin
• Maui
• Aachen
• Pittsburgh
• Sydney
• Melbourne
• Charlottesville
• Tokyo

Sucks to be the one in Charlottesville, though not as much as it sucks to be the one in Pittsburgh -- although never fear, that one is about to move again. ;)

Not one of these people was a student (although a couple were moving to become students, so I guess that kind of counts). So what's going on here? What is this trend that leaves me determined to make friends only with old-school Seattle fishing families in the future? And what prevents me from up and moving along with everyone else? Increasingly I am thinking about this question.

There's one trend I spot among everyone whose moves are captured in the above list: They are all either single people, or couples who agree to let their location be influenced by the career choices of one or the other of them without direct regard to the other. Which must mean something, somewhere, to this pattern.