文章探讨了作者在追求个人梦想和陪伴家人的矛盾中挣扎的经历。作者从小被鼓励冒险，长期在外生活，但随着父母年迈，她开始感到内疚。她分享了自己从黄金海岸到加拿大的旅程，以及最终在维多利亚州Bright定居的经历。尽管在Bright的生活幸福，但她仍然渴望能离父母更近，弥补错过的时光。文章反映了现代人在追求自我与家庭责任之间的普遍困境，以及对时间流逝的感叹。

🏡作者从小被鼓励冒险，养成了四处漂泊的生活习惯。在父母的鼓励下，她开始了长达15年的远行生活，足迹遍布加拿大、欧洲和南美洲等。

📍作者在墨尔本生活了8年后，为了丈夫的事业和家庭的稳定，搬到了维多利亚州的Bright。虽然Bright的生活让她感到幸福，但同时也让她远离了父母。

😔随着父母年迈，作者开始感到内疚，觉得自己没有履行承诺，无法经常陪伴父母。她意识到时间的不可逆性，担心未来会后悔未能与家人共度更多时光。

I was raised to be adventurous and have always moved from place to place.When my family moved to Bright, I thought we'd only be there for a year. It's been three and a half.While we love our life here, sometimes, I feel guilty about not living closer for my family.

My parents raised my brother, two sisters, and me to be adventurers. To seize the day and explore the planet, just as they did in their younger years. I've lived away from them for 15 years, moving from place to place. Although I've had fun, I do feel guilty about it now that my parents are getting older.

I spent my childhood and teenage years on the Gold Coast in Australia. It was a wonderful place to grow up, with beautiful beaches and sunshine year-round, but I felt it also lacked substance and culture.

And so, at 25, I decided to take off overseas to Canada. I'd lived away from home on and off since I was 17, but I'd always stayed relatively close to my parents up until that point. They encouraged me to go, to spread my wings and follow my dreams.

I thought I'd only be away for six months

What was meant to be a six-month working holiday in Canada turned into a yearlong adventure, followed by an epic backpacking trip around South and Central America. From there, my partner and I moved to London for a year, traveling through Europe and Africa before finally heading home.

When we returned to Australia in 2014, I didn't want to go back to the same old routine on the Gold Coast. As much as I had missed my parents and would have liked to live close to them, I thought that if I returned to the same neighborhood I grew up in, I'd sink into a depression pretty quickly.

My partner and I ended up settling in Melbourne, Victoria. Melbourne is a thriving cosmopolitan city, and we loved living there those first few years. Our first two kids were born there, and we met some great people who became lifelong friends.

Mom and Dad would fly down to visit regularly, and even though they missed me, they could see how genuinely happy I was living there.

In 2021, after eight years in Melbourne, my husband asked if I wanted to turn over a new leaf and relocate to Bright in regional Victoria, where most of his family is based. I've always been a nomad, so I jumped at the chance for a fresh start.

I remember calling my parents and telling them that I was moving to Bright. They sounded surprised because the town has a population of less than 3,000 people, and I've never been a small-town kind of girl.

"Don't worry, guys," I told them. "It's just for 12 months, then we'll be moving back to the Gold Coast so that the grandkids can live closer to you."

That was three and a half years ago.

I love our life in Bright but wish we lived closer to my family sometimes

I feel like the longer we spend in Bright, the harder it's going to be to move on. Our kids are settled, we've made enduring friends, and my husband's business is thriving. But while we love it here, most days, I also feel a tremendous amount of guilt about the situation because I feel like I haven't kept my word.

I chat with my parents multiple times a week, and they come and visit twice a year, but they've missed out on a lot of special milestones — especially with our youngest daughter, who was born after we moved to Bright.

My husband keeps telling me that you have to live your life on your own terms, but I worry that one day I will regret not living closer to my folks, who are now 80 and 76. Time is something you can't reverse; once the moment has passed, there is no going back.