don’t move to a big city if you’ve never spent a significant amount of time in one. i don’t care how “culture-rich” it is. true, a lot of people love the noise, crowds, crime, stink, traffic, astronomical prices for literally everything, and all the other crap that’s tangled up in city life, but there’s no amount of money anyone could pay me to put up with even one of those things ever again. if you’re in your 20s, maybe you’ll love the night life. but that gets old quick. or you better hope it does…
I mean, obviously it’s not for everyone, but it’s important to actually experience urban living for yourself before deciding you hate cities. Especially given the political situation in the United States right now, where so many suburban and rural residents are bashing cities and urban living without having properly experienced it for themselves; I think there would be a huge bite taken out of the urban/rural divide if more people had experience living in cities, and got to personally see the good and the bad for themselves. Plus your twenties is a great time to learn street smarts, because that way you’ll be less likely to have a bad experience when you do visit a big city in the future, whether it’s for something fun like a concert or something serious like going to a medical specialist. There are a lot of basic lessons like “never ever leave anything visible in your unattended parked car”, how to use public transportation, being able to firmly say “no”, and general situational awareness that are just good life skills that city living forces you to pick up.
I’m not at a point in my life where I want to live in a big city anymore, but I’m so, so grateful that I did in my youth.
don’t move to a big city if you’ve never spent a significant amount of time in one. i don’t care how “culture-rich” it is. true, a lot of people love the noise, crowds, crime, stink, traffic, astronomical prices for literally everything, and all the other crap that’s tangled up in city life, but there’s no amount of money anyone could pay me to put up with even one of those things ever again. if you’re in your 20s, maybe you’ll love the night life. but that gets old quick. or you better hope it does…
I mean, obviously it’s not for everyone, but it’s important to actually experience urban living for yourself before deciding you hate cities. Especially given the political situation in the United States right now, where so many suburban and rural residents are bashing cities and urban living without having properly experienced it for themselves; I think there would be a huge bite taken out of the urban/rural divide if more people had experience living in cities, and got to personally see the good and the bad for themselves. Plus your twenties is a great time to learn street smarts, because that way you’ll be less likely to have a bad experience when you do visit a big city in the future, whether it’s for something fun like a concert or something serious like going to a medical specialist. There are a lot of basic lessons like “never ever leave anything visible in your unattended parked car”, how to use public transportation, being able to firmly say “no”, and general situational awareness that are just good life skills that city living forces you to pick up.
I’m not at a point in my life where I want to live in a big city anymore, but I’m so, so grateful that I did in my youth.
As my father who traveled constantly for work said all big cities and airports start to look alike.