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Thinking About Leaving a Big City? Here’s a Question to Ask Yourself
If city living has simply become your default setting, it might not be worth staying
Two years into the pandemic, the “flight from urban centers” news cycle has gone through countless iterations. Are we still fleeing cities at this point? Or returning to them starved for office happy hours and morning commutes?
I haven’t been keeping up, so I can’t be entirely sure. However, one thing that is clear to me is that the pandemic really has forced a rest on our “default settings.” For many people this period of questioning has included wondering whether big city life — and all its attendant spontaneity, creativity, but also exorbitant rent and crowds—is really still worth it.
As someone who fled a decade of city life early on the pandemic (May 2020), I’ve been reflecting on what I’ve learned in the 18 months or so since I left. What I miss, what I don’t, what I can’t believe I used to think was normal. I have no regrets about leaving, and overall I’m grateful that this historic, world-shattering event forced me to make a change that, otherwise, I might’ve not made for another five years or so.
In conversations with city-dwelling friends since, many have been pondering making the same shift. I think the…
