I wrote the below to Niki on Twitter Moms, after she left a comment letting me know she had been in NC her whole life (30 years) and in 2015 she planned on retiring to FL where her husband’s dad is.
Why I felt compelled to write the below was because I lived in Florida for 26 1/2 years of my almost 28 years in this lifetime.
Most of the people I have met in Florida have been from northern states. They always had similar complaints and many have went either back to where they came from, stayed and are still complaining or moved to somewhere in between the drastic heat and drastic cold like North Carolina, Tennessee or Virgina.
I do not know Niki’s personal experiences with Florida, if she has experienced Florida for any prolonged period of time. Please note I do no hate Florida, I just like to lay out all the cards because I have noticed many people do not truly research places to relocate to, like the good AND the bad as well as go experience the place before moving there.
I am a firm believer that certain places to not vibe with certain people’s energy. When people live in places that do not match their vibe, their energy it puts them and their life out of balance. It may sound crazy, but I have witnessed it first hand myself as well as seen it in others. (The same goes for apartment, house hunting, jobs, careers, the vehicles we drive and so on.)
Another interesting thing that I believe goes back to energies and people being in places they are not meant to live in… Is the majority of my Northern friends have all experienced some serious hard life lessons and way more drama and turmoil then they ever imagined possible or experienced before while being in Florida. I do not believe in coincidences.
After I noticed the pattern I evaluated my life. I have had a lot of pain and crazy events while being in Florida no matter how good of a person I was. I really just thought that was how life was, though I was not happy about it and wanted something else. After years of different people making the same comment I knew that was not the case. I always wanted to move out of state. I am a Floridian, I am proud of that, however I never lived in a place in Florida that fit my vibe (In all fairness, I never lived in every city in Florida, so there maybe one out there!). I was always out of balance.
Even growing up as a little girl, I begged my parents several times to not move to certain places because of how the vibe of the town made me feel, they didn’t listen of course and those places ended up being the times my family experienced the worst hardships we ever had. Coincidence??? I think not.
Parents if your child ever freaks out and begs you not to move to some place because they get a weird uneasy feeling, seriously just listen to them no matter how irrational it seems at the time. They are often more intuitive than you because they do not worry about all the outside things adults deal with daily.
Without further ado, here is what I wrote to Niki:
If you haven’t ever stayed in FL for a prolonged period of time…
Here are some things to consider and do before you make FL your retirement place.
1. Spend a month or two in July and August (the hottest months).
2. Realize it is way more humid than NC. Any time of year! (I about fell over laughing when a lady complained about how humid it was here last summer! I told her, “You have never been to FL have you?”) In the summer expect for your clothes to stick to you even, if you are outside for 15 minutes or less! It’s almost inevitable. (Being a Floridian I can wear jeans or pants in the summer and be okay, that’s not normal though even for most Floridians, lol)
3. Realize 4 seasons are very rare to have and the leaves always just turn brown except evergreens of course. The fall season is rarely fall anymore, so those cool relaxing Autumn breezes you can kiss them good bye because they are rare.
4. Realize when it is actually cold, it feels a LOT colder than the same temp in North Carolina. Because it is so humid, the cold chills down to your bones. (I never knew why my northern friends thought FL cold was more chilling than places where it snowed, until I had my first winter up here back in 2004 when I was up here for 5 months. Then I got it, it really is a different kind of cold, I will take NC cold any day!)
5. For the last several years in December it is usually hot maybe a week of cold, it doesn’t get really cold till January and the cold has for the past several years extended into spring with hot and then cold weeks alternating. Which for many seems to weaken their immune system and cause an out break of getting colds and sick in general off and on.
6. Depending on what area of Florida you can almost guarantee several months in the summer where there is a nasty thunder and lightening storms with heavy rain every afternoon almost like clock work at the same time of day. (The Tampa Bay area is really known for that).
7. There are way more not so desired insects in FL.
8. If you lived over near the mountains of NC or even central North Carolina, then there would be a HUGE difference in the quality of air, etc. You live in Spring Lake, which actually reminds me of some of the places in FL as far as scenery (lots of Pine trees and sand). I call from Benson down to the South Carolina border the ugly part of NC. LOL (Which seems to be the consensus with many of the Floridians I have met around those areas which is a lot!)
9. You can almost guarantee every year a major hurricane or two or sometimes 3+.
Now there are plenty of great things about Florida, however just about everything that is great about FL can be found here in North Carolina as well! (Except for almost every place in Florida is at the maximum 2.5 hours from a beach!)
I just wanted to point out some things that most people do not realize!
I believe we all have places we are meant to be in tune and harmony with. All I am saying is get to know FL before you decide to call it home (if you haven’t all ready) and make sure it truly resonates with you.
I will probably have a vacation home there one day after doing some thorough research and experience, but I do not foresee me ever going back on a full time basis.
~Have GRATITUDE for all & choose to have a GREAT day~
Jamie Pelaez
Skype: Jamie.Pelaez
AIM/Yahoo/MSN/Gtalk: JamiePelaez
P.S. Want a fun way to learn how to listen to your heart (or what I consider your gut instinct), so you can easily know where you should be in life and what to do to create and have happiness and success in all aspects of your life? Click here to check out Andrew Matthew’s book Follow Your Heart .