When Deciding Where to Live, Think About This

There is no question, every place I have ever lived has had it’s own personality, it’s own energy.

Much like each of us.

I believe that making the decision of where we want to live is grossly undervalued.

I’ve lived a few places in my life and they all brought out different sides of me, some good, some bad.

And what it all comes down to is that a city has to share our values.

I never really understood that until I left New York City.

For the life of me I could not understand why I was so unhappy in New York. My life was full of excitement, I had great friends and was by all accounts “thriving”.

But inside, I felt like I was sinking.

What I realized was how important these things are to my happiness:

*Sunny weather

*Open spaces

*Nature

*Being close to water (although NY is an island, it never felt like I was close to water…)

*Laid back pace

*Grass

*Aesthetics

*Community

New York had its own things to offer which are wonderful and why I love to visit but they weren’t for me to live there.

I came upon this decision again when deciding where my husband and I were going to live when we left San Francisco. I grew up south of San Francisco and my husband grew up north of there (where we ultimately decided to move)

While I had to make the very tough decision to move somewhere that was away from all of my best friends and my family, I had to listen to my gut. To my values.

Where did I FEEL most like myself? Not where “should” I live. Not where would I least “disappoint” people.

But when push came to shove, where did I WANT to live?

And it was where we moved and now live.

And I love it. I mean, really love it.

I’m where I’m supposed to be.

What I’m trying to say is that I encourage all of you to really think about where you want to end up.

Of course there will always be bumps on the road where maybe you have to move somewhere for a job (you or your spouse) or other responsibilities that are out of your control.

But when you are at a time in your life where it is within your control, listen to your gut.

Tags: do i want to live here, relocation, where do i want to live, where should i live, which city has the best job market
Categories: Suzannah Says

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 23rd, 2012 at 1:33 pm and is filed under Suzannah Says. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.