Oh, I did laugh out loud at the punchline!

I feel you were so lucky because in 2016 the dark clouds were already gathering for the world. Late 2016, my wife and I had given up on the US, and fled to Europe. Then came Trump, COVID, the two wars....

I left Canada and my parents for a life in New York City over 30 years before your story, with little money in my pocket, but I was comparatively careful with my actions at the time, because NYC even then was a somewhat unforgiving place.

It was touch-and-go. At one point, my father somehow figured out I was about to fall off the bottom and I got a check for $500 in the mail, from out of the blue. This was a lot of money for him - I later found out he had taken an advance on his credit card to do this.

Later, I got some good jobs, and then I was able to do a lot of wild things - start a band, which I was in for many years, move into a loft in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where we had great parties fueled by cannabis and LSD. I didn't get married until I was about 50, but we are still together.

Now thing are somewhat precarious again: we had to leave the Netherlands, due to losing our apartment, me losing my job, and an insane housing crisis, and now we're touring France on the cheap, looking for a place to make a stand where we can afford to live. (Portugal was never on the cards: too many Americans leading to justified resentment of foreign invaders, and I have no relationship to the country, whereas I can't even remember not being able to speak French.)

Oh, dear, I made it about myself again. But I loved your article, it was worth saving till this moment!