Round up the usual suspects. – Claude Rains as Captain Renault in Casablanca
Enough already of the “usual suspects.”
Casablanca has been a favorite movie since I chose to do a paper on it for a college cinema class. Hunkered down in one of the glam seats at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre with notebook, pen, and piles of buttered popcorn, I watched it three times in a single weekend, coming away from each viewing alert and energized.
I’m still a fan of both the movie and the “Captain Renault” character today.
What I’m not a fan of are these usual suspects: the too-typical over-publicized destinations you might be led to call home because “everyone else” is going there.
Like Orlando or Atlanta has come to be for New Yorkers tired of shoveling snow.
In Part III of this series, we confirmed you don’t need to have lived in a certain place before to call it home now. Nor does your past limit your future. Only you can do that.
Guideline 4 for Geographic Freedom is: BRAVE NEW WORLDS
Brave new worlds extends the scope of Guideline 2 ~ Never let your past limit your future ~ into the present, declaring:
You can choose to live where NO ONE you’ve ever known has lived before.
(Wow, did you catch the Star Trek-type rhythm of that last part? I am a fan 
but no pun intended.)
If hubby and I had followed the norms and expectations of the many, we might be living in Austin or Portland today instead of Las Cruces. Both cities are where ~ according to episodes of HGTV’s House Hunters at that time ~ every other person in the U.S. wanted to live.
Or we might have chosen Sedona, AZ or Santa Fe, NM. These two cities were the first that came to mind to many of my friends when they heard the words attractive, southwest, and city strung together.
Both places are beautiful but just not the right fit for us.
The Sky is (Nearly) the Only Limit
THINK ABOUT IT because IT’S TRUE: You can relocate almost anywhere in the world. Your only limits: the visas needed and the purchasing power of your pocketbook.
As for those countries that won’t issue you a visa, chances are you wouldn’t want to live there anyway, no more than the people living there now. Think . . . North Korea.
Up next and waiting for you ~ Guideline 5 for Geographic Freedom, the last in our series.
In the meantime,
