Hey,
I live in a small town in europe, built a house and well it takes me about 25 minutes to the next bigger city (not huge one, lets say 50.000 people live there.
I sometimes find myself getting frustrated because the next gym is 7 minute drive by car to another smaller town. Grocery shopping I also do in another town nearby. Same people, same stuff, nothing new.
I am thinking about selling my house but I love the quiet area too. I love my freedom in my house and yard and I know everyone in town but nobody has my interests.
I can’t just go to board game nights, meet many people in a bar, go shopping, go to a cafe and all that. I always have to drive those 25 minutes first.
But would I do all those things I wrote above if I’d live in the city? A few friends live in that city and say everything is so expensive and they do the same as I do (same gym, same grocery, same routine) just in the city.
But I feel like I am missing out.
I live in Denver, Colorado, and absolutely love it about 85% of the time. It’s more of a mid-sized city, but everything is in walking distance, I find it easy to meet people, there’s lots to do, and pretty direct access to nature and culture, and public transportation is reasonable…definitely room for improvement though. Yeah, it can be loud at times, and there’s crime, and homeless issues, but overall I prefer this to the more rural areas I’ve lived in. I’ve been here about 20 years. But it’s really a personal preference, some people hate it. It’s more expensive in certain ways, but I don’t need to own a car, and use a lot of public services, like the library, to help offset things.