The Costs of Moving

Insouciant individuals would, by definition, take professional and geographical moves in stride. I hate such people (because I am not one of them). My personality ranges towards the obsessive-compulsive, which means that every aspect of moving produces anxiety ranging between high and extreme.

So much of my time and energy is focused on getting my family relocated 60 miles to the south that I have not been able to do any work, other than copy editing and proof-reading, during the past several weeks. This week, I even had to withdraw as co-author on a casebook (in Natural Resources Law) for which a new edition was due this summer. I completed two of my three assigned chapters, but  my inability to complete the third chapter (on Mining Law) was holding up my co-authors, and the publication process. So, I made the decision to remove myself from the project, which can't have disappointed my co-authors any more than it disappointed myself. In fact, one of my co-authors is will be able to complete the necessary revisions much more quickly and easily than I could have done, even if I had not been moving.

I can only hope the long-term benefits of moving are worth the really high short-run costs.