I moved 13 times over 15 years for my career; it wasn't easy

I work in academia, so to advance my career, I had to move often in my 20s. I've moved 13 times, including several cross-country moves, which left me feeling disconnected from family. Figure skating shaped much of my early life: at 15 I convinced my school district to override attendance to pursue the sport and scheduled college classes around training.

Three undergraduate apartments and two graduate dorms later, I landed a place on Bleecker and Thompson in New York City and spent three years coaching at Wollman and Chelsea Piers. At 25 I enrolled at UCLA as a postdoctoral fellow and lived in the Venice Canals for two years, then completed a one-year postdoc in San Diego before returning to the East Coast for my first faculty position in Philadelphia, which turned me into a professor in developmental psychology.

I moved back to New York City for my tenth move to the West Village, then again to be closer to the train hall; by my thirties and my third year tenure-track, I wanted to be home.

United States, New York City

academic career, postdoc, tenure-track, relocation, new york, ucla, philadelphia, figure skating, coaching, west village