Running Away from Home and Sharing the Memories Along the Way

I ran away from home at just the right time.

OK, technically, I didn’t “run away from home.” It’s just that after I graduated college, I was a bit moody, and confused, and bored, and angry with the world. Kind of like my six-year-old is every time he threatens to run away from home.

But I did run away from it all. I packed my bags and moved to England. I had no job, and nowhere to live. But within a few weeks, I had both. I had a slew of new friends, and even a new boyfriend.

Eventually, my work visa ran out, and I had to return to America. But after a couple of years, the boyfriend I left behind also came to America, so that we could get married and start a family and spend the rest of our lives together.

So far, “the rest of our lives together” has included moving around. A LOT of moving around. In the first seven years of our marriage, we lived in five different states. Since he’s from England, he’s of course been away from his family for many years. But I’ve also been far away from mine. Neither of us see our parents or siblings on a regular basis. And that’s been tough. Sure, we joke about how nice it is to never have to deal with the in-laws (joking, JOKING, I promise!). But living far away from family isn’t easy. We both come from close families, and we grew up relying on that network for companionship, advice and support. It’s been hard at times, starting a family and raising our children, without our families close by.

But remember, I said I ran away from home at the right time. That’s because when I moved overseas, email use was becoming widespread. I could stay in touch with my family and friends back home with ease. By the time I had my first child, blogging was becoming a “thing.” I learned how to make my own rudimentary website so I could share pictures of my son online, and all the grandparents could watch him grow, even if they didn’t see him in person very often. By the time my second son was born, Facebook was getting popular. My husband and I both enjoyed reconnecting with old friends we’d left behind in the many places we’d lived.

Nowadays, there’s no reason to feel isolated or out-of-touch. With my ever-present smartphone, I can snap a picture or take a video and instantly send it to dozens of people. In many ways, modern technology has brought my far-flung family closer together than ever.

Did you know that YesVideo is a part of this “technological revolution” that’s bringing families closer together? Sure, you probably know that YesVideo helps you preserve family memories. And that YesVideo transfers your old formats (slides, printed photos, old movies on film) into a modern, digitized, high-quality format. But these days, it’s all about sharing — sharing our memories, our occasions — across multiple platforms. YesVideo makes doing this incredibly easy.

With your YesVideo order, you of course get a DVD as your finished product. But you also get an online account. There, you’ll find a digital copy of your order. You’ve got plenty of space to store your orders in the cloud. From that account, you can easily access your videos from your mobile devices. And the best part? You can securely send your memories to friends and family, or share them via your favorite social networks.  No more trying to upload videos to an external site, hoping that “private” link is really private, and then praying that Grandma can figure out how to navigate her way to your profile. With YesVideo, you can store and send, safely and easily, all from one location.

Because even when you run away from home, it’s still nice to stay in touch with everyone while you’re gone!

Amy Bradley-Hole is a freelance writer and speaker who covers tech, travel, business and parenting. She blogs at Freaky Perfect about the freakiness of her not-so-perfect life. When she’s not goofing around on the internet, she dreams up new ways to drive her husband and two kids crazy.