True, good idea. There are lots of third orders out there, but many seem to follow the NOM. The genuinely traditional ones are few and far between, and of those, many have a long-distance membership arrangement, if that suits. Still, if there's a traditionalist third order with an established location, that could be an incentive for deciding where to move if someone were already considering a move.

There is a good one 😊:
https://dominicansavrille.us/the-third-order-of-penance/

No exaggeration ... this is one of the best threads I've ever read.

I identified with every single post in one way or another.

Even if you didn't lose a vocation, chances are you lost a childhood formation, and failed to recognize your calling when you still had a chance to fulfil it.

I wish to thank everyone who posted here for their comments. I don't feel so alone anymore!!

I certainly lost a proper catechism and specifically Catholic formation. Really, I didn’t lose it so much as simply didn’t receive it, didn’t even know it existed!  IF I had become a nun, it would have been in a teaching, missionary, or medical order.  I chose or really, felt I was born a teacher, so that’s what I’ve dedicated my life to doing for God.  Because I stayed single, I was able to exist on “pay” that most people could not survive upon, or would not accept.  The long hours and sometimes living conditions were incompatible with married life, even if we were not blessed with children.  Any men out there wish to live in an old army tent?  No utilities, water carried from the outdoor pump at school, a calf feed bucket for a toilet, a stove made from a 25 gallon drum?  That was for heating and cooking.  I admit to splurging every other week for the laundromat in town for bedding, towels, heavy items.  The nearest communication was the neighbor couple a mile and a half away who had a phone for emergencies, otherwise, it was the payphone outdoors at the little gas station/bait and tackle/ barber shop about three miles away.  (No cell phones in 1978-79!). 

Or in the words of that popular garden sign, "Bloom where you're planted."

One of my favorite maxims.  Whether one missed, lost, or squandered their vocation, God knew from all eternity that you would be right where you are now, and He desires your eternal salvation and had made provisions for it still.  A person may have missed out on plan A, B, C,D.....but He still has another one.  We find it by striving to follow Him faithfully each moment of every day.  It won't look like His original offer, but what Father, when asked for an egg, gives His child a serpent?  Plan E is good and beautiful too, and we press on, not concerning ourselves with the past, but press forward with our eyes firmly focused on Christ and His Eternal Kingdom.

Or in the words of that popular garden sign, "Bloom where you're planted."

or: "Play with the cards you've been dealt."
(a sort of variation on 1 Cor. 4:7: "what hast thou that thou hast not received"?)