How many times have you packed up your life and moved? To/from where?

(This entry started out as a comment posted to someone else's blog. I decided to move it here when it got too long.)

I was born when my parents lived in an apartment in the Jackson Heights area of Queens, NY. When I was 2, we moved to a house on Long Island; when I was 5, we moved to New Mexico--to what I think of as my "childhood home."

I lived in my childhood home in small town NM from age 5 to 17. After that, even if I exclude places I only lived short-term, with no intention of staying longer--say, less than 6 months--I count 16 separate residences as an adult and 17 different roommates (2 were boyfriends).

In college, I lived in two different dorms, one on-campus student apartment, one off-campus apartment, and with my mom for two separate years. I subleased from a friend for 6 weeks one summer, too. During college, if you count suitemates, I lived with 11 different people.

After college, I moved to a small town for my first real job. I lived there for two years and rented two different houses. I lived with 2 different people there--one roommate, one boyfriend.

I moved back to the town where I'd gone to college and lived in two different apartments there in about 18 months (both places alone). I then got tired of commuting and moved to a very cute townhome in El Paso, Texas, where I lived for eight months, alone.

After El Paso, I took a job that required me to live in cities for short-term (3-6 month) contracts. During that three-year period, I lived in Plano, TX, Thousand Oaks, CA, Houston, TX, Waterbury, CT, Phoenix, AZ, Scottsdale, AZ (for 5 weeks), and Tucson, AZ. Except for Scottsdale, I lived in each of those apartments--all rented & furnished by my company--for at least 3 months. I had a roommate once for 6 months (in Phoenix).

I then moved to Tucson for law school. In six-and-a-half years in Tucson, I lived in three different houses and two different apartments. I lived with one roommate for two years and my ex-fiance for a year-and-a-half, the rest of the time alone.

During the two summers I was in law school, I lived in Phoenix for jobs. One summer I lived in my recently-deceased grandmother's house in a retirement community (& had to go home to Tucson every weekend); the other summer, I rented an apartment, which I shared with a friend/classmate.

I moved to my current apartment in July. Given the problems I've had here, I will almost certainly move again in February when my current lease expires. I hate to move again, but I also hate paying a high rent to deal with a lot of unnecessary bullsh1t.

Given that I only lived 3 separate places until age 17, it's no wonder I sometimes feel disconnected and hate to take the time to fully unpack and decorate. Anywhere I've lived as an adult, if things proceed according to the usual course, odds are I won't be there long.