The other day ago in the car on our way to brunch I told V about how I’ve recently come to terms with my priorities shifting.
If I wanted to, I could live anywhere in the world. I could move anywhere. Get a job anywhere. It would’ve been just the same as this past January but instead of moving to inner-city Cleveland and starting a new job on the east-side, I would’ve moved to Chicago (or England) and started (probably) a very similar job to what I have now.
I value the ability to pickup and go. To have low-commitment (lease an apartment and car, etc.) and high mobility. But these days I’ve realized I value a lot more. As I grow older (which I hate to say!) I care more about having my support system of family and friends around me. When I was younger (read: when I was in my early 20s as opposed to mid-20s) I was open to going it alone and finding my way in a new city, making friends along the way. Now I don’t want an entirely new set of friends, I want my own. The ones who’ve been there through so much with me already.
Add on top of that being in a relationship where my significant other isn’t too keen on moving away from his home state either (bar a nuclear winter, in which case he said he would CONSIDER moving).
Even further, factor in that Ohio…Cleveland…is my city. It’s the city my father was a police officer in for so long. It’s the city my parents grew up in and know so well. It’s the city I know the in’s and out’s of. Where the best hidden bar is (I won’t tell though). The quickest routes and back alley’s to avoid traffic downtown from sports and events.
And it’s not that all of these things wouldn’t come together if I moved to another city. They would. Local knowledge, friends, a job, a place to call home…they would all fall together if I moved. But I’m at that point where I don’t WANT to move just for the sake of moving. Just because I can doesn’t mean I should. (Which I tell myself every time I think about buying an Audi…just because I can doesn’t mean I should!)
So unless an amazing opportunity comes up that’s too good to pass (because at that point, moving WOULD be ideal) I’ll be calling this city my home for a while. And for once, I’m okay with that.