The writer Thomas Wolfe once famously wrote, “You can't go home again.”

He should have added, “But at least you can always rent another one.”

For many of us single folk, we regularly move from the time we turn 18 and leave for college until the time we finally plunk down a grotesque amount of money for a home. In between, we scour the apartment listings for more square footage, hardwood floors and washer/dryer hookups, all the while knowing at any moment we could pack up and leave.

And that's what I'm about to do.

I have spent the past few days boxing up my entire life. I have taken down photos and artwork from the walls. I have begun to clean out corners. Then, as quickly as I arrived, I will be gone.

To a renter like me, ownership is a relatively foreign concept. Yes, I own books, CDs, too many clothes and pairs of shoes, and I like to think I own my cat, though she probably disagrees. But real-deal real estate remains as distant and unknowable to me as the lost city of Atlantis or the Texas Panhandle: Far away and a little scary.

You'd think I would be up for settling down. After all, I am the same kid who pledged never to leave San Antonio. Of course, I broke that promise and left for college in Houston. But I always loved knowing this elusive idea of “home” waited for me, just in case.

I have developed the same connection to the apartment where I now live, and I am sad to leave it. Within its walls, the usual suspect list of events unfolded over the last 361/2 years: love, lust, sadness, elation and some great parties.

I do not feel prepared to do this. I am disorganized in my packing, and the dust bunnies under my bed have started their own briar patch.

But what move would be complete without utter chaos and confusion? Sure, you may end up throwing your dirty sheets and clean pairs of underwear into the same cardboard box at 3 in the morning. That's what a move is all about — throwing out everything you don't need. It's about detonating your old life. BOOM. Now you have no choice but to start a new one.

Moves are sometimes the best way to force a change without getting married or having a baby. And yet a move could get you closer to where and who you want to be.

So Wolfe was right. You can't go home again. But you can make new ones.

So take only what you can carry, turn in your key and put the other key in your car ignition.