Ah, wanderer. I know something of your journey, though it sounds like I had a bit more active wanderlust than you. I lived in two different cities doing my university degrees, with extended stays in other countries during that time. I moved to one city in Europe after university, and after two years there, to another city.

And now, I'm on the other side of the world in Australia, where I was surprised to find myself settling in, and settling down, and have now been here for seven years - and will apply for an Australian passport soon.

For now, you don't have a choice but to move on. If you have the freedom to do so, then try to spend some time where you feel comfortable, where you can stay with friends or family, and figure out your next steps.

Some people are not meant to wander forever, and you sound tired. I was too. New furniture. New friends. Those frustrating missteps when you haven't quite figured out a place yet. So, what's the plan? How about lists, do you make lists? What are all the marvelous things that you learned from the places that you've been?

What are the most important things to you? Proximity to family? To friends? Have you found people of a nature suited to your temperament in one place, or another (Chicago vs. California for example)? Do you value good restaurants? Hot climates? A city you can cycle in? A great library? If you find a good job, is that more important than where you live? What are your requirements for a relatively happy life? You know these things already with all the places you've lived. Could you choose a few places and spend some time there? As Cary recommends, to see if some place calls you home, Chicago or elsewhere.

It's not going to be easy to start with - it never is to settle into a new place - but you know that already.

Good luck.

An ex-wanderer.

"I feel like a perpetual transient, yet that is never what I intended to be. What I want is a place to call home, but I don't know where that is anymore."

Cary says that you don't choose home, home chooses you.

As an unintentional transient, now working on my 29th move in 32 years of life, I can also attest that often you don't choose transience, but transience chooses you. I never chose itinerancy - but it claimed me nonetheless, and now I wonder whether I can ever stop.

Life is a sea, and I have come to believe that we have only a choice to surf the waves or be pounded beneath them. Both my parents had cancer - my father is deceased, my mother now living 4,000 miles away from me, after a transatlantic move I helped her accomplish with my ailing father 2 years ago. What you can't change, you should accept with grace. I know, it's hard.

I understand the fatigue that LW expresses. I'm feeling it right this second.

LW, realize that "home" is a concept more portable than you assume. "Home" can come with you, and you can create one almost anywhere you feel comfortable enough to stay.

Give it time. Choose a place you think you might like, and commit to a year there. You will have new acquaintances in 6 months, sooner if you're a friendly type, and a group of buddies within a year. Friends make a home, sometimes better than family, and I have friends all over the world now.

After the fatigue and depression lifts, LW will be a stronger and wiser person. Moving more doesn't make you happier about moving, but it makes you a lot more efficient, and a lot more outgoing. I think those are good qualities...

Oh, and Chicago's a great town. I lived there for 2 years, and visit often now. Providing you can take the winter, there are far worse places to call home!

no crime in living an interesting life. move to the midwestern suburbs and spend a life watching television.

there are other options. celebrate transition. avoid materialism and make new friends. be as exceptional as you can be. avoid boredom at all costs.

i've been perpetually transient for most of my life. currently stationed in hong kong, i have no intention of going backward. i prefer moving forward. you can have one life or you can pursue many.

don't give into to traditional notions of safety and security.

always choose life over a premature grave...

I understand, but try to enjoy the moment of being able to go anywhere, of being able to choose. At some point in your life, you might not have that luxury. Pick up a copy of some magazine flaunting the Top 50 Places to Live! What are your passions or, at least, interests? Envision your perfect surroundings. Are you surrounded by outdoor enthusiasts? Artists? Musicians? Foodies? Mountains? Plains? Malls? Tall buildings? Bungalows? Find a place you might like to call home someday. I should think eventually you will find a place that feels like home and you will just want to stay.

The LW is concerned with rising ethnocentrism, racism, and anti-immigration in Europe?

Let's call a spade a spade. If you had an unpleasant experience as an expat, that's fine. Americans will always face challenges when living abroad. (I speak from experience.) But don't assume it's because Europe has some kind of problem that America's too good for.

I'm not trying to wrestle the responses into a debate about whether racism is more prevalent in Europe or America; I merely want to mention that for some people, these issues are the very foundation of belonging in a place. Big Issues can very well determine where one feels at home, I believe, whether it's through belonging to a powerful movement, or fighting against injustice.

I encourage all those (myself included) who tend toward nomadism to at least be honest with themselves about why they move where they do. There's racism everywhere. But don't use it as an excuse for leaving if it's not really appropriate. That's dangerous in and of itself.