Rebuilding Rob

I’m not a big traveler, but there are a lot of great places I’ve visited. I happen to think that New York and Paris are my two favorite cities in the planet but I wouldn’t want to live in either of them; at least not full-time.

If I could live anywhere in the world, I would probably choose Acapulco or Hawai’i – or at least somewhere in that part of the world – tropical, near the Equator. I live the sun, warm weather and the beach. The bluer the water, the better. I see places like those and I realize that they have been relatively untouched bed by human pollution – certainly not to the levels of major cities.

Where I live today, I truly get to experience all 4 seasons of the year. That does bring about a sense of continuity; a natural order to things. But after loving down South for 8 years, I don’t think I need that. Sometimes during those dog days of summer, when the sun beats down for days on end, I look forward to a rainy day. But I don’t need clouds, rainy and cold temperatures to feel me what day it is. Looking at the calendar is really enough for me. The fact is if I never saw snow again during the winter, I wouldn’t complain.

During my junior year in college, I had my first (or at least my worst) bout of seasonal depression I withdrew from 3 of my 5 classes that semester and nearly dropped out of school entirely. In the years since then, I’ve talked to counselors, taken medication and have even found my ways of coping with or chasing off anxiety. For those who have never experienced anxiety or prolonged depression, it’s a lonely place to be. While I’ve never experienced anything as bad a that semester in college, the thought of it happening again scares me. As a kid, I always thought the end of summer made me sad because of the fact end of baseball season. I know better now.

That is why warm weather is so important to me. No it doesn’t make any of us immune to anxiety or depression; but sunny skies make coping with things a whole lot easier.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

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