My older sister and I have always joked to each other, our family, and friends that both of us need to make our own countries. Hers was always called “The Island”, and sadly I don’t think I ever named mine. Either way, “the island” was always what we referred to as a utopia society where everything was the way we wanted it to be because, obviously, we were in charge. Throughout the years as our political, religious, and moral ideals have changed, we have drifted away from the outrageous idea of ruling our own unique countries. For me, though, as I saw my peers grow to accept and praise the society we currently live in here in the USA, I have grown continually disappointed and disgusted by it.

America is no longer the country it set out to be, what our Founding Fathers wanted it to be, or what we used to be, either. We are a country of two ruling parties, neither of which I agree with at all anymore. We are a country ruled by sensationalism, fear, and greed. We are a country that continually contradicts our own constitution, even though our lawmakers – including Presidents – are meant to obey it. We are also a country of great excess to such an extreme that I am often embarrassed that the US has become the example of such a definition.

A lot of people tell me “become an activist” or “join a movement“. Unfortunately, I know that the USA is quite far gone into the depths of ridiculousness, and even if I were to join a movement or become some sort of activist, I would not live to see the USA change to the degree it needs to. Call me impatient, but I don’t want to live and die in a country whose current stances on fundamental human issues are as such that I am ashamed of them. Everyone says these days that the USA will change thanks to the next generation. Well guess what? I won’t be around for much of that because I’m already in my 20′s. For me, wanting to leave the USA is not something I just want to do; I need to do it for my own peace of mind, happiness, and health. Although I was born an American, I am not an American that fits with the rules and expectations of 2010 America. While I thank America’s past for giving me the freedom to leave the country in the first place, I have to kindly decline the opportunity to live here for the rest of my days.

In 2009, I knew I was going to leave the US someday, probably a lot sooner than later. I opened a savings account that I transfer $50 into automatically every month, along with any extra change that is rounded up from purchases (thanks to Bank of America). I have nearly $1,000 in it currently, and I don’t plan on ever withdrawing from it until I am ready to actually leave the US. Unfortunately, I don’t know exactly where I’m going to move…yet. Thus, I am starting a List of Requirements that a country should probably meet to qualify for consideration. Mind you, this list might be incomplete because I keep thinking of new things all the time. Currently, the list contains a few things such as follows:

CORE REQUIREMENTS (non-negotiable)

1) Less than 6,500ft (1,980m) above sea level
Due to an absolutely wonderful genetic heart defect that totally sucks, I experience pretty darn bad altitude sickness within 1 hour of reaching an altitude of around 6,500ft. The average, healthy person may experience Acute Mountain Sickness (the “technical” name) at around 8,000ft (2,440m), and this is even expected a lot of the time because it is so common. In my case, I experience severe AMS at much lower altitudes and in much less time. On the family trip to Flagstaff, AZ in 2009, I experienced extreme AMS symptoms at 6,910ft (2,100m), and some progressed into symptoms associated with High-Altitude Cerebral Edema (HACE) after going to the Grand Canyon which is about 7,000ft (2,135m). I don’t really want to die only 30 hours after moving to a new city somewhere, so a tolerable altitude is something I can’t really compromise on.

2) Potential jobs in my career field
I know that IT, Internet, and Administration are all growing fields, but there are obviously some places where there will be more jobs in these fields than others. As I am double majoring in both web development (Visual Basic, PHP, MS SQL, MySQL, ASP.NET, etc) and web design (CSS, X/HTML, Illustrator, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, etc), I am getting the best of both worlds for my education. On top of those, though, I am getting into advanced server administration with UNIX-based operating systems for desktops and servers. I know there are many, many jobs out there already for these areas, but I need a job in the future, too.

SUGGESTED REQUIREMENTS: LEVEL 1 (can be somewhat negotiated if needed)

1) Reasonable amount of moderately proficient speakers of the English language
I don’t think I would want to move to some place like Russia, China, India or whatever because their language is fairly hard to learn for a total foreigner. I have some experience in French from taking it from middle school through high school, but my knowledge is more limited to syntax, grammar, and pronunciation versus actual useful vocabulary. Since there are many languages that are fairly similar to French syntax, grammar, roots, and so on, it is possible that I would have a slight advantage in some countries versus others. However, I don’t really want to spend unwanted time here in the USA learning a foreign language just so I can move to another part of the world. Thus, I am hoping to move somewhere that has a decent amount of English speakers. I know there are plenty of countries that require school kids to study English from a young age – possibly even until college – so hopefully then I will have an easier time adapting to a new country versus not understanding anything at all.

2) Decently affordable and adequately available health care
As lucky as I am (note the invisible online sarcasm), I have some health issues that are constantly kicking me in the butt. Some people may be more concerned with one – maybe two – aspects of health care (eg: dental, pediatrics for their kids, etc), but there are many that play a big role in my life. My biggest “issues” revolve around mental/behavioral health, cardiovascular health, and prescription drug availability. Of course, I need dental and vision care, as well, but those are kind of a given. The USA has the most horrendous health care system that actually qualifies as a “system”. Pre-existing conditions, health insurance lobbying 24/7, no importation of generic or brand name prescriptions, huge deductibles, enormous up-front co-pays, and absolutely ridiculous terms and agreements are commonplace here. People deal with them every day, including me. I would much rather live in a country that had some sort of public/universal/government health care system, or at least a partial one. I don’t care if the government taxes my income a lot higher, because frankly I would rather have less money in my pocket overall but better health services that don’t force me into bankruptcy after receiving.

3) Beautiful surroundings: natural, man-made, or both
There are plenty of aspects of cities, towns, villages, and countries overall that make a location beautiful. Natural surroundings such as plant life, wild life, general weather/climate, and landforms are all things I would like to have. On the other hand though, having a busy city with unique architectural history, varying cultural influences, and reflections of the past are all things I would want too! I honestly don’t mind either one, or even having a nice mix of both. For example, when I lived smack-dab in the middle of San Francisco, it was awesome because everywhere I went was very different from the previous block, there were many different world influences, etc. Right across the Golden Gate Bridge, though, there was immense beauty in the natural surroundings involving the water, the hills, the greenery, and much more. It was a wonderful mix of both and that would be nice to have once more.

4) Fairly calm political and social environments
Since ridiculous politics play a huge part into why I want to leave the United States, the country I choose to make my new home will need to be a tad better than the country I currently live in in terms of political and social environments. Currently, I completely disagree with the direction the USA is headed in, as I have for many years. Citizens are not equal here in many, many areas, such as health care availability, educational opportunities, average salary, etc etc etc. While most countries might have very similar issues, the USA also has some fairly outrageous ones in my view. Gay marriage and same-sex partner rights are hotly debated even though it is the year 2010¹. Abortion rights for women are still up in the air mostly because of religious groups². The USA condemns many other countries stockpiling nuclear weapons, yet the government spent over $35,100,000,000 in 1998 alone³ on nuclear weapons creation and other programs. I could really go on for quite a while, but I think you get where I am going with this. The USA doesn’t have what I am looking for in a political and social environment, so I am hoping to find somewhere in this world that is a little more easy-going with politics and social issues, unlike the USA.

SUGGESTED REQUIREMENTS: LEVEL 2 (more negotiable than level 1 requirements)

1) Moderate or acceptable climate (including precipitation, daily high, daily low, etc)
Having lived in a city that is contained within the Sonoran Desert the majority of my life, I have continually dealt with daily low temperatures around 40°F (4.4°C) in winter and daily high temperatures of well above 100°F (37.7°C) in the summer. Arizona is extremely dry the greater part of the year⁴ even though we experience a summer monsoon⁵, but that doesn’t guarantee decent rainfall. In all honesty, Arizona has one of the best climates in the USA because we do not experience powerful tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, landslides, etc. as some other states do. The worst things we have to dealt with on a somewhat regular basis are the overwhelming heat, dryness/drought, flash flooding, and forest fires. For me personally, I would rather give living in a different climate a shot versus staying in the desert my whole life. That said, though, I also don’t really want to move somewhere that is the total opposite of Arizona and downright freezing most of the year. A somewhat moderate climate would be ideal, but not absolutely necessary if it means other advantages.

2) Acceptable quality/standard of living in major cities
Don’t get my wrong, I know the average “standard of living” varies drastically throughout a country all the way down to throughout a single city. I have been very fortunate to have grown up in a wonderful area that has provided my family and me with just about anything we could want. Scottsdale (the city I have lived in) is praised for being an extremely “livable” city, and the NRDC ranked Scottsdale as the #8 “smartest” medium-sized city⁶ in the USA. On the flip side, Scottsdale is also known for some things that I honestly don’t care about, such as plentiful couture shopping, world-class dining and restaurants, night clubs galore, PGA Tour golf tournaments, and collector car auctions. Those are things I rarely (or never) use. To me, those particular aspects of a city such as mine are simply excessive and most definitely not needed for me when I move to another location. I would much rather prefer a city/town/location/etc that did not cater to those with “expensive taste”, but did focus on keeping the air fresh, the water clean, and residents happy overall. Honestly, I don’t even need a big city to live in; I would be happy with anything from a rural farming area all the way up to a jam-packed busy city if it had what I wanted.

As I mentioned originally in the beginning of this immense posting, this is definitely an incomplete list. However, the “requirements” I’ve come up with so far cover a lot of ground in most cases. Within my own research, I’ve found a surprisingly large number of countries that supply the vast majority of things I am looking for. The process of choosing the one country that is right for me when the time comes, though, is going to be a lot more thought-intensive than this, I’m sure!

Since I have a while to go before I am genuinely able to leave the USA, I think I will have plenty of time to figure out just where to head off to in the future. Until then, though, I will keep researching and monitoring the continuous changes around the world. Hopefully I can figure out where I want to ship off to soon, but then again, I have well over 1.5 years to get through in the USA first!

Open any general self-help book at the bookstore and you will probably find the phrase “live in the moment”. This is a very important thing to do, but yet it seems very difficult for most people to accomplish. I have experienced plenty of waves where I lived in my depressing past, and also plenty where I have only thought about what could go wrong in the future. There is a very thin line to balance on between living in each moment of reality and getting too far ahead of yourself or thinking only about the past. I can honestly say I have worked at this balancing act for many years, and right now I think I am doing quite well in terms of where my brain is at day to day. I do occasionally have moments where I get ahead of myself with negative thoughts, but lately I have tried to replace the negative ideas with only positive ones. Frankly, it has been working pretty darn well!

Right now, my life is fairly stressful. I am getting ready to start a busy semester at college with more intense classes. I am moving into my own apartment on the 17th. I am still perfecting the task of driving my car. Lastly, I will need to begin looking for some sort of job as soon as I get a grasp of how much free time I will have around school. Doing all these things together in a very short period of time has been fairly exhausting, and I’m sure it will continue to be for a while. To combat the mental stress, I have turned to the task of planning ahead. It really started with basic daydreaming, but later led to actual research and the thought of making it all a reality.

It’s always been my biggest desire to travel around the world, or at least live in another country for a while. Now that I am becoming more and more independent and establishing myself in a career field, I know that I could make that desire come true. Although I don’t know exactly where I would go (yet), I have been researching real estate and state/province/etc statistics for places around the world. I started with England originally simply because I could get around easier than somewhere with a completely foreign language. Now, though, I am started to spread out to non-English speaking countries, too. Getting deep into the facts of how people live in these other countries is what is fascinating to me, and so far I have found many types of communities that I would love to be a part of.

In all honesty, I am looking for something completely opposite of the typical American lifestyle. While I love my country with all my heart, I don’t love our governing system, our political bickering, our incapability to make all US citizens equals, our obsession with scandal, and so on and so on. More so than all of that, I don’t like the fact that America is – for the vast majority – very fickle and unappreciative. To me, I find it absolutely shameful that just about every national television news program doesn’t mention how the 100,000+ troops are doing in Iraq right now. When the Iraq war started, every second of the news was dedicated to that single cause. Now you rarely hear about anything going on in Iraq regardless of the thousands of troops that are still there. We as a country are far more interested in temporary issues like reality show celebrities, Tiger Woods’ affairs, and fluctuating gas prices than we are in our own citizens who are fighting a world away. I am also very saddened and disgusted by America’s extreme obsession with food when we waste more food than any other country on this earth. It’s those sort of issues that really make me want to leave the country; not out of anger toward my country, but out of compassion for the world community and a desire for my own inner peace.

I know I have a few years to go before I will have the opportunity to completely pack up and say goodbye to the USA, but I am starting to get ideas now so that I have some sort of idea of where to steer myself when the time comes. I’m keeping everything in perspective, though, and not getting too far ahead of myself. However, it is very motivating in my opinion to be able to think about what I could bring into my future in just a few years time. So, until then, I am going to keep my daydreams going and continue to explore the world from afar. Hopefully it will pay off sometime in the next few years!