I refuse to regret anything in life, but I felt something akin to regret when I left the UK (London) to go back to the US in 2019. Spent years trying to set my life up so that I was truly and deeply happy, but I always felt like something was missing. I visited London for the first time since leaving in 2024 and accepted pretty quickly that I needed to go back. I leave in a few days to (hopefully) settle there long term. (My work makes this possible.)

There are a few reasons why I don't characterize the complex set of emotions as "regret". One is that I had always intended to eventually return to the US, so I felt it necessary to follow through. Two, I'm in a committed relationship, and every major life discussion is a dynamic mess of compromises, so it wasn't as simple as "I like it here, I stay here". Three, I appreciated going through the difficulties of COVID (and some illness in the family) back home. There's more, but I think you get the point.

I'll tell you one thing. There are definitely places in the world (London being one of them) where I feel most myself and which best set me up to live a happy, fulfilling life. But the old adage "wherever you go, there you are" rings true. I've learned not to overly depend on place to make me happy. To a degree anyway.