Like many others, I've lived in a fairly big city my entire life. But, unlike many, I would never live in my hometown forever.
Don't get wrong, Minneapolis is a great city to live in: it's fairly large, urban and is way more diverse when compared to the rest of the state. We have the iconic Juicy Lucy, Dinkytown, thousands of bike riders and tons of other "Uff-Da"-inducing things. And there's nothing wrong with living in your hometown for your entire life. But, in all honesty, why would you want to stay in the same place forever?
Aside from obvious financial reasons and roadblocks, staying in one place for the rest of your life sounds incredibly boring and uneventful. You'd miss so much from staying in one city for 80 years. The same people, same restaurants, same everything. It's a waste of the limited time you have on planet earth. Now, this statement doesn't necessarily include people who go on vacations every so often or get out of the city; rather, it's the people who have only stayed in the one place they've known since they were mere minutes old.
My future career has shaped my views on this a lot. One of the perks (yes, there are perks) of being a teacher is that you can work practically anywhere on the globe. There are schools, organizations and non-profits everywhere looking for people to add to their environment's quality and diversity. People love to argue "Well, shouldn't you stay in the place you grew up in and help them rather than others?" without looking at the other side's argument and the benefits that come with it. You can contribute your help and expertise to more than one place in a lifetime. I could work in Minneapolis and then move to Dar Es Salaam, for all I care. You don't owe your hometown or country anything.
While being an educator or any job related to public service will mean staying in one place for at least six years to make an impact in that community, six years is not a long time. That's nothing compared to the human lifespan and time we have on earth. It's six years to eighty.
Asides from work, there's also just the opportunity to explore the world. Even if it's just moving to another city in the states, you get to experience new ordeals you never would've in your hometown. New people, food, buildings and even new weather. The only things that are really the same are the sunrises and sunsets.
No matter how cliché it may sound, there is too much of the world left to explore. Staying in the same city for the rest of your life is fine if you wish to do so, but why waste what little time you have on this earth with the same repetitive daily schedule? To sum it up, if you don't need to be grounded in one city, there's no point for you to stay in that one city forever. If you can travel for your job or just explore the world, you should do it. Vive ta vie.
