I’ve always heard that sentence: “If you’re unhappy, move.”
Like you’re a tree, rooted only because you’ve decided to be. Four years ago, I decided I wasn’t going to stay rooted in a life that felt heavy.
Because life is too short. And it deserves to be lived appropriately, fully, intentionally, and with room to breathe.
My family and I packed up what we could, left New York behind, and moved to Sarasota. No dramatic goodbye tour. No perfect plan. Just a clear knowing: we want something different. Something quieter. Something lighter. Something that felt like us.
I can tell you with zero hesitation, it has been the best decision of our lives.
From survival mode to living mode!
New York will always have a piece of my heart. It made me sharp. It made me strong. It taught me how to move fast, think faster, and never wait for permission. But at some point, the hustle stopped feeling like ambition and started feeling like exhaustion.
The noise. The pace. The constant pressure to be “on.” The feeling that even on your days off, your body never actually unclenches. We weren’t just busy, we were tired. Not the “I need a nap” tired. The deep tired that comes from living in a rhythm that doesn’t match your soul.
We wanted peace. We wanted quiet. We wanted space, not just physically, but mentally.
So we chose to move.
Sarasota gave us back our nervous system!
Sarasota didn’t just change our address. It changed our daily life.
Here, the sunsets actually make you stop what you’re doing. Like, you’ll be driving and you’ll pull over because the sky looks like someone spilled watercolor across it. Here, the beach isn’t a “special occasion.” It’s Tuesday. It’s after school. It’s a random evening when you need to clear your head and remember what matters.
We fell in love with the simple things that don’t feel simple when you’ve been living in overdrive:
* Quiet morning coffee without honking and sirens
* Long walks on the beach where you can actually hear yourself think
* Bike trails that feel like therapy
* Warm air that invites you outside
* Weekends that feel like weekends again
Then there’s the water, Sarasota’s secret love language.
It’s boating days that turn into stories. It’s pulling up to a sandbar and letting the kids run around while the grown-ups exhale. It’s parking your boat like it’s normal to do that on a Saturday and realizing… wait.
This is our life now.
We didn’t just move, we chose ourselves
Some people think moving is running away. I don’t see it like that.
I see it as choosing your life on purpose.
I see it as saying, I get one shot at this. I’m not going to spend it constantly stressed, constantly rushing, constantly surviving.
Four years later, I don’t miss the chaos. I don’t miss the grinding feeling that time is always slipping away. What I gained is bigger than what I left:
We gained presence.
We gained family time that isn’t squeezed between schedules.
We gained a lifestyle that matches who we are, not who we were pretending to be to keep up.
I know not everyone can pick up and move across the country. But I also know this: if you’ve been feeling that tug, if you’ve been hearing that quiet voice that says there has to be more than this, listen to it.
Because sometimes the bravest thing you can do is admit you’re unhappy… and move like you believe you deserve better.
And if you’re wondering if Sarasota is really that different?
It is.
It’s calmer. It’s softer. It’s beautiful in a way that sneaks up on you. And for us, it became home, not because it’s perfect, but because it feels like peace.
And peace… is priceless.
By: Inbal August
