When I purchased my first home (an apartment) in Spain, I also bought a very nice bed - a queen size with a very comfortable mattress that's a hybrid of latex and springs. I love my bed and wonder how I ever managed to sleep in smaller beds or ones with uncomfortable mattresses. I used to suffer from insomnia but it isn't much of an issue these days.

I think the important thing is to not feel like you have to do what society is imposing on. If you don't want to settle and are happier roaming around and can take care of yourself financially - keep roaming around by all means!

Why does everyone have to conform to the 'destiny' imposed on us by society, i.e. get married, have kids, buy a house blablabla, etc? Some of my friends have 5 kids. Surely they're making-up for a few people who have none. Human beings are not going to get driven into extinction because you didn't have any.

People have 'looked down on me' because I don't have children or don't have 100% ownership of one culture or language (99%). Some people feel that my having a much younger partner is a 'sad thing'. There are lots of things small minded people can find to criticize about ANYONE...and this includes 'not settling down'.

From an older ATCK to some of you younger TCKs - all I can say is this:

Feel good about not wanting to settle down, but if you should ever change your mind - don't feel bad about that either. :)

The key is that we don't have to conform so long as we abide by the laws, i.e. don't kill your neighbor and don't steal from them and pay your taxes, etc. :p

I still don't get how some idiots can equate non-conformists with anarchists. I'm going to make a sweeping general statement here but I think I can safely say that in general TCKs are law abiding citizens even if we don't conform to lots of unwritten rules...especially the ones that don't hurt anyone.

My name is Sadie too! I had to say sth, cos there aren't that many people called Sadie. ahaa.

Its strange but cool cos I feel differently, my life is in no way stable at the moment, don't know what country or where I'll be living in two years, don't know what country i'll be in the summer, have been sleeping on a different bed every week for the past month, and I don't like it!

I crave a sense of stability, some sort of permanence in the form of the same room, house, country.

While I'd like to say I'm not attached to things... I am. I'm very attached to my things. I have a lot of things and get really annoyed when people touch my stuff and move them around. Over the years, I've come to define my things as my "home" as well as feeling comfortable in a place. I haven't lived in one location long enough to fully settle so my places are always looking like I have half of the stuff unpacked and half are in the closet ready to be packed. But the constant is always my things. Granted I don't necessarily have an attachment to everyday things, but sentimental things like my baby pillow, my pictures, my stuffed animals that I had gotten as gifts or sort of grew up with, certain clothes that have memories attached, some posters that have memories attached, my scrapbooks, my journals, etc. I keep all these "memories" with me wherever I move to. Yes, that means my space is always crowded. But I don't mind because those things make me feel "at home".

meh...whoever wrote tat diary is clearly not TCK.

but i think this is not just a matter of TCK or not, this is a matter of existentialism. The truth is objects are just objects, they don't mean anything if you don't want them to mean anything. and I definitely prefer tat they dunt mean anything. I mean I go to a boarding school, and everytime when the break comes around, ppl r like "YAY I AM GOING HOME!", then ppl ask me "r u going home?"
I go..."no..."
They go, "then where?"
I go "*insert random place*"
They go, "That's not home?"
I go, "It's just a place, like every other place."
They go, "So where is home?"
I go, "Why does it matter?"

it's funny how now I almost find tat question offensive...it's like, "I AM A PERSON WITH AN OPEN HEART WHO DOESN'T NEED A SPECIFIC HOME! HOW DARE YOU NOT NOTICE?" lol

In my 6 years at boarding school (with some travelling in between) I had a different room and bed every single year-_- and since my parents moved around while I was there it's not like I have a standard home to go to during the break, if home is where YOUR OWN bedroom is...well I've only slept in tat bed for like 2 weeks in my whole life so I reli wudnt consider it tat special.

Considering how many variations of the word 'bed' I've slept on(yes this includes dirt), that's never really meant anything until I started college waaaay back. Now it normally means the place that I get online, can hide from the world with a layer of dark covers, or if I'm really lucky spending the time with a warm body :-p. Mostly, I've said home is where my stuff is, but even that wasn't concrete.

For me, I don't get really get attached to my bed but if given a choice between my bed and someone else's ones in my family, I rather my own bed.

I get more attached to the house I guess. However the attachment only lasts until the family moves again. Then it's like a new adventure sort of thing, discovering a new neighborhood and I forget about the last house.

I've been living in different dorms or apartments every year In the past years except the location hasn't changed. When I lived in the dorms, I didn't feel like coming back to my room was coming home but when I started living in apartments I got attached to the place more.

Because I like flexibility, I don't like decorating my room too much because I will move away anyway. But bed is something I get attached to. I think it is because of the blanket I had been keeping since childhood. It has gone through everything with me (from tears to happy smiles) in all the places I've lived. I had many blankets growing up but because this particular one left with me to college so it has been my constant comfort. This year I got a new blanket because the one I had was too worn out. I was really sad. I think I could attach myself to the new blanket (while still keeping the old one) only because it was a gift from my family and it gives that sense of "home."

I haven't lived anywhere for more than six months in the past four years, so last spring I decided it was time to stop and not move for a while ("while" being fluid, as I'm not ready for commitment!). So, while I've not slept in my own bed every night, I've not been in planes and on floors, couches, etc, etc. A couple of nights ago I stayed with a sick friend of mine, and woke up in the pitch black in the middle of the night, not knowing where I was, who I was sleeping with, or what house I was in. I haven't had that in years. It took me a few minutes to place myself and the warm body next to me, and the fact that the phone that was ringing wasn't in reach where it normally was! That small experience told me that it is possible to acclimatize again, to be attached, even unconsciously. I have no problem sleeping anywhere, airport floor or restaurant bench or whatever... I just didn't think it was possible to get 'lost'--it's been so long! Does it feel like home? Heck, no. That would take many miracles and many years of staying in one place. I'm a realist... it probably won't happen. But it's interesting to know that I am still human.

I'm way attached to my bunk, and when i sleep in beds, i always squish myself up against the wall.. I sleep best and fully comfortable when i can hear the water next to my head, in a slow and steady rocking swell with my dearest teddy and a noisy fan blowing on my face (one of the tiny ones attached to the wall. I love my little barred 60cm wide bunk with its overhang with two small open lockers inside which my possesions are packed into, and it's crash bandicoot poster at the end on the wall.
If my dad ever sold our boat I don't know how I would cope, I'm so attached to it and everything inside it. I don't buy anything I don;t have a place for in my little quarter, my guitar goes in the shower ;) and my desk is DIY, so i can put it under my bed.
So, yeah I get attached to my home, and I miss sleeping with my down quilt and pillow each night. I can always tell the difference until just before I go to sleep, in that time where your senses are all dulled, and i feel like im back in my bunk.

I never had that feeling of, "Oh, it's so good to be home in my own bed"...and never realized I felt that way until your post, Sadie. A bed is a bed is a bed *shrugs* and as long as it's clean, and the bathroom has running water, I'm fine. And I don't like feeling attached to houses either. Much too painful. I'm happy to customize a small room or something, or a stake out a little corner that I can call mine. But to leave too many personal things in a huge space (like a house) is too much commitment for me. It's uncomfortable and I'm always afraid I'll never be able to bring everything with me. It goes without saying that I'm attached to very few personal things.

But then, as for what Mayling says, whenever I have to buy presents for people, for a birthday for instance, I choose things that I feel have some sort of permanence. It has to be something the recipient can keep forever if possible, and pack in a suitcase if needed.

Me too.
I also can't buy ANYTHING without thinking "will this fit in my suitcase?" etc
I call "home" anywhere I happen to be staying at because it doesn't mean anything to me, and yeah, I have never even noticed a difference between beds haha