Jake Stewart is a National Nomad and a first year International Studies major here in the U.S. He has moved around the United States for most of his life as his father moved their family in order to train horses around the country.
Where all have you lived?
S: I have lived in: Colorado, Arizona, California, Louisiana, Texas, Washington DC, Washington State, Florida, Oregon, Nevada, New Mexico and Japan. Those are at least the places that I lived for a substantial amount of time rather than a short time period.
How long is substantial amount of time?
Like at least three months. I moved every few months at first but then as I grew older, my mother grew irritable with my father’s need to move so we began to slow down and it developed into staying in places for years after my parents divorced. After they divorced, my father continued to move but my mom and I stayed in one spot. My dad was a race horse trainer and moved where ever the money was good!
Also, a lot of the time we would move to another city within the same state, like I lived in Washington for two years but moved to two extremely different cities in that time span.
Japan. You said you lived there for a while, why and how long? How was it moving internationally after living stateside for the majority of your life?
I lived in Japan for three months and it was an extreme change because I lived with a host family. I taught English to a small community over the summer there. The culture was extremely crazy to adapt to but I loved every second of it.
Did you bond with many military B.R.A.T.S since you moved so often?
I actually never met any military brats and because I moved so much, I made friends very quickly but I also let go of them extremely quickly as well-so it was a double edged sword.
Was there any one thing that you would keep as a constant through the travels (sport, activity, language)?
I did consistently read, books were my escape from my constant travel as kid but then as I began to love the travel, I focused more on where I was rather than where I wanted to go and fell immediately in love with the idea of travel. Now I find it difficult to stay in one place.
How do you feel about staying one for four years, like you did for University? Do you plan on studying abroad?
Staying here currently doesn’t worry me too much, but I did for a while get anxiety attacks because I felt stuck in one place so I love to get out and travel the immediate world around me but you can only see so much in one spot so I do hope to study abroad within my 4 years here!
Where do you want to study abroad?
I probably want to live in some East Asian country, Japan again or Korea.
