If you’ve lived in a small town, you may have romanticized living in a grand metropolitan city, but maybe you moved there and your perception of city life changed (for better or worse). So, when Reddit user Panch3tta asked: “People who fetishized a city, like NYC or Tokyo, and then actually took a leap of faith to move there, how has your opinion changed since?” I thought it would be helpful to share their experiences just in case you’re thinking of moving. Here’s what they said below.
1.
“I moved to Austin, Texas, on a whim and absolutely loved it. Spent five years there and never regretted it. The nature and nightlife are unbeatable in my opinion. Such a gorgeous place. I, unfortunately, had to move away for other reasons, but I hope to move back eventually.”
2.
“I never fetishized it, but Tokyo is way cooler than I ever could have imagined, even after over a year of living here. It is as safe, beautiful, convenient, and interesting as people say, and more so. Does Japan have problems? Yeah, but if we are comparing places in the world, Tokyo is fucking fantastic and holy shit, is it big. Also, there is a huge amount of beautiful nature nestled all over the place here, and if there isn’t a park nearby, the people of this city have cleverly woven nature into the walkways and buildings. You’re never more than just a quick train ride away from changing your scenery from almost anywhere. It’s impossible, literally impossible to see all of it. You never will, and it’s always changing, so even if you could, which you can’t, by the time you’d be done, it would all be different again.”
3.
“Lived in NYC for a decade. Loved it. Then I was ok with it. Then with COVID, I’d had enough. I moved to LA, and it doesn’t really compare in any real way, but the weather is such a ridiculous blowout; I’m happier here. Outside is nice. I have a remote job and no car, and pretend it’s a walkable city.”
4.
“Not really a specific city, but as someone who grew up in Hong Kong, I thought that American cities like LA, SF and Seattle would feel more similar to what I was used to in terms of overall vibe, density, and skyscrapers, with the image I had of America being the world leader. Having lived in the US for a while, only NYC really ended up giving me the ‘busy metropolitan city’ vibe that I was conditioned to expect from growing up in Asia.”
5.
“I grew up in San Francisco, romanticized Vancouver, and went there for study abroad. Everyone called me loco for not going somewhere more exotic, but that’s where I really wanted to be. It was awesome. So awesome, in fact, that I’m planning to move back permanently as soon as I graduate.”
6.
“I did this with Chicago, and I love it so much.”
7.
“I moved from a small town in rural Newfoundland to Toronto, and it’s amazing, I love my city and walking the streets and being downtown every day.”
8.
“Los Angeles. It may be true that there are vast swaths of crappy areas but the best parts of it are just another world. It’s not about wealth, it’s just beautiful to look at. The combination of terraced hills, architecture, palm trees, and the density of creative people, hipsters, and culture is sort of magical. Definitely more so in the early 2000s, because back then, movies were a bigger deal — before streaming, and video games weren’t as good. Movies were a magical business, and it was a city where anything could happen. ANYTHING.”
9.
“Berlin. There is perhaps always a tempering of expectations after a while, but even seven years in, I still feel this was right; I know the city is not as unique as I thought in all regards, and that there are places that exceed it with respect to specific forms of ambience or excellence, but every time I step into some little weird counterculture reinvention bubble by accident, or find myself on a dance floor at 7 a.m. in the morning where people still are having public sex off by the side, or when I see how excellent my collaborators/competitors in the local research field are, I am reminded of how it was the right choice.”
10.
“I moved to Honolulu. I loved the culture, the beaches, and the lifestyle. The cost of living was awful, and the homeless were aggressive. I would go visit, but I would never live there again. I was working to get by, and my time there wasn’t how I imagined. “
11.
“Paris, France. I’ve been here for 20 years, from the other side of the world. Paris Syndrome might be a thing for others, but I love the place. So many beautiful buildings, the Seine at night with péniches (barges) and cafés on the quais on long summer evenings. Since [Anne] Hidalgo started her anti-car crusade, it just keeps getting better and better.”
12.
“I was born and raised in Southern California. I loved the idea of living in New Orleans. I was always a fan of Anne Rice, and I heard the music scene was great, but I also loved history, so when I visited in 2003, I fell in love with the city, but especially The French Quarter and The Garden District. I moved there with my wife and two kids in 2004. I got to live there until Katrina hit, when I lost everything and had to move back to California to live with my parents until we could get back on our feet.”
13.
“Moved to Seattle in 2006 from Las Vegas. Basically, left one boomtown right before its crash for another boomtown just before it got big. But I love Seattle. There’s mystery and subtlety here, which you can’t get in Vegas. Having been to London, LA, Singapore, Edinburgh, NYC, Chicago, Miami, Paris, Taipei, DC, Sydney, and Delhi, Seattle feels kind of like a mix of Paris, Edinburgh, Delhi, and Chicago. There’s a kind of quiet magic and beauty here that reminds me of how you can turn a corner and run into something unexpected, like in Delhi or Paris. It’s a city that thinks and imagines and dreams. But it has the industriousness of Chicago. And then there’s the mountains, the Mountain, and the Sound. It doesn’t have the impact or anonymity of NYC, or the pomp of London or Washington DC, or the laissez-faire of LA. It is a city of mists and rain, light and water, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
14.
“I took a leap of faith to move to San Francisco, and it exceeded my wildest dreams.”
15.
“I idolized Portland, OR, as the perfect city. I grew up on the East Coast and was in the closet, even though I didn’t figure it out until I was 24 years old. I love the rain and grey days, and I kept hearing that Portland was a food town, and I worked in food service, so it just felt like it would be the perfect fit for me. Then in 2018, my now-husband and I packed up the car with $2,000 in cash and some prepaid hotel rooms along the way, and drove across the US to move to Portland. Now, I regularly just randomly say ‘I’m so glad we moved to Portland,’ because I’m so much happier than I ever was back east. I feel like I really started my adult life because the minimum wage and cost of living got sort of close to matching. I felt stable enough to get married and change my career path. There are some very valid criticisms of the city, both of the government and the population, but I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.”
16.
“I lived in Istanbul for eight years. I hated it most of the time. Spending five hours in traffic, wild rent for terrible houses… I value my life, my youth. Now, I am living in a city with 500K people in the US. I enjoy small cities. No traffic, peaceful life. I just bought a 2400 sqft (225 m2) house with lots of luxury upgrades for $470 K. No way this is possible in chaotic big cities.”
17.
“I was born in a small Australian town, with a population of less than 500 people, and a school cohort in the double digits. Everyone knew everyone. Last I checked, Main Street looks the same as when I was a kid. My cousins lived in Sydney, and I fetishised that city HARD. I was also a kid when the city went through a cultural revolution during the Sydney Olympics, then Finding Nemo came out, and it seemed to experience another wave of global interest… my sleepy town of one lone Main Street couldn’t hold a candle to Big, Beautiful Sydney. Some 20 years later, I’m accepted into Sydney University, so I move there.”
18.
“As someone who’s from the south of Spain (Málaga), moving to Madrid has been very meh. I used to dream about going to university here, and the school I wanted to get into, being one of the only ones to offer the double major I was interested in, was just perfect (ironically, my hometown’s university was the only other one that offered it at the time). This doesn’t have much to do with the city itself, but I’ve never felt as trapped as I have here.”
19.
“I moved from a farm town to Queens. I saw a picture of a lively, crowded bar and just wanted to be there, surrounded by unfamiliar, raucous life. The density of people creates things that cannot exist in cities that are spread out, even large ones. You have to be jammed together. Visiting is absolutely nothing like living there, as picking apples one afternoon tells you nothing about farming.”
People who romanticized a city and moved there: tell us how your opinion has changed since living there in the Google form anonymously or in the comments below.
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