Moving house

I'm moving house tomorrow... again. It is one of my least favourite activities in the world, yet somehow I've ended up moving house virtually every one to two years for the past decade and more. Packing up all the random bits of my life into boxes and discarding other assorted bits always puts me in a wistful mood. Thinking of the various events that have happened in my life while I lived in a particular space, from the mundane everyday stuff to life-changing events like new relationships, friendships, breakups etc.

When I look at an empty home cleaned of all my stuff, it's like seeing the imprints of your life vanishing, and that space becomes a blank slate once again where once upon a time, it was where you cried your heart out, stared for hours at the ceiling in despair, spent countless nights wondering if any of your dreams would ever come true. All these spaces hold different memories from different parts of my life, that are often also associated with different people that have come and gone out of my life. And then the memories become all that you have.

Here's a brief recap of all the times I've moved:
1. 1996 - from Singapore to UK to start university
2. 1997 - moved dorm
3. 1998 - moved dorm
4. 1999 - from Singapore back to UK after graduation and then to California for graduate school
5. 2000 - from US back to Singapore to start work
6. 2003 - moved to Tokyo, Japan
7. 2004 - moved to another apartment while my apartment was being renovated
8. 2005 - moved back to my apartment
9. 2007 - moved back to Singapore, then to New York briefly, then back again to Singapore
10. 2008 - my apartment was sold so moved to a rental flat while my new place is being built
11. 2009 - moving into my new apartment

Nevertheless, I am looking forward to my new home which is in a much more peaceful neighbourhood than my current one. Just hope that it will be quite some time until my next move.