It wasn’t a midlife crisis in the conventional way, but at 43 I wanted an adventure…a change in my status quo, and a job opportunity offered me that chance. My husband (of 25 years) and I lived in Michigan our entire lives. And although there’s much to love about the state, we’d grown averse to the cold, long winters.
So, this July we moved ourselves, our 100 lb. dog, our daughter, two cars and all our belongings four states and 780 miles away to North Carolina in search of warmer winters and a chance to retool our lives. In choosing a place to live, we looked at dozens of rental options and then chose an apartment that is only two blocks from my office. Now, for the first time ever, I walk to work.
Why is that such a worthy pursuit? I’ve been working for more than 10 years promoting the health (as well as environmental, economic and social) benefits of walking and biking for short trips and exalting the community’s responsibility to make it easier for residents to make that choice (via connected sidewalks, bike facilities etc.) Yet for just as long, I’ve mostly driven myself to work because of distance and lack of safe and convenient walking and biking facilities. This move created an opportunity to realign my actions with my values. I could test my strong belief that less driving would improve the quality of my life.
It’s been about 3 months and here’s what I’ve learned so far about my walking commute (positive, negative and neutral):
+ It takes just 3 minutes to get to work (my shortest commute ever)
+ I have more time in the morning to exercise (or sleep)
• The walk is uphill on the way to work, which should be good exercise
− However, I haven’t lost any weight (I’m still holding out hope)
+ I often walk home for lunch which is a treat (maybe fewer treats would help the above)
+ I feel considerably less stressed for not being in traffic during peak times
+ It costs me nothing to commute to work
+ We are about to sell one car (which should help economically)
+ I’ll never scrape ice, clean snow or shovel a driveway to get to work
• I’ve yet to experience the social benefit as I’ve not met anyone on my daily walk (maybe it’s too short?)
While there are more positives than negatives, I believe there is still much to discover about this choice to drive less. And while the commute is short and there are other destinations we walk to, there are still places we drive to that are less than 5 miles away because there aren’t obvious and safe biking facilities between here and there.
I’m hoping to find more ways to reduce driving as we continue to explore. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Stay tuned for other insights from my midlife adventure.
Learn more:
A Convenient Remedy: Walkable Urban Neighborhoods
Hi, this is a comment.
To delete a comment, just log in, and view the posts’ comments, there you will have the option to edit or delete them.
Great job on your first post and setting up a blog!!
I’m so glad to hear that you are enjoying your new lifestyle. I miss my days on campus when I walked anywhere and everywhere. It’s easy to forget how refreshing it is to go for a walk. Not to mention saving money, sleeping more and avoiding the stress of morning traffic!
My husband and I are 64 and 66 and have lived on a farm for a long time and I would like to move to a place where shopping and other things are close by but we do not want to live in a big city. We are hoping to find something in IN, KY, or TNN.
How do we even start looking.
Thank you
Hey! I am so proud of your adventurous spirit!! You will be “livin’ the dream” soon, but there are transisions to go through for sure. Hang in there! One more thing! We already miss you here!! (You don’t meet too many people shoveling snow- but it is exercise and I think we are here to stay for now)