It's always been a fantasy of mine to live a simple life in a small or midsize town, but it's always been a distant dream, something I imagine doing later in life after finding some nebulous success that leaves me financially independent. A year or two ago, I brought it up to my fiancee, and she echoed my wishes. We're both outdoors-oriented, and living with the forest in our backyard sounds wonderful. Still, we set a hazy goal of "maybe in our 40s." We're 30 now, and still get plenty from city life, socially and creatively.
Recently, things have been dire. Our current city used to pride itself on being a cheap place to live, which has naturally resulted in a boom, which brought a housing crisis, and skyrocketing cost of living. We're both creative types with bachelor degrees, and while we're smart and hardworking, neither of us has truly marketable job skills. In short, we've both worked entry-level office jobs for the last few years. We're both in student debt to our necks, and we're tired of struggling just to be comfortable. Pair that with recent sociopolitical strife, and we're pretty sick of the rat race.
Yesterday, my fiancee said we should bump up our prospective moving date and I'm getting kind of scared. I'm a creative dilettante (I draw cartoons, write, and most recently perform standup comedy/podcasting), and I know the city is where you make the connections and hustle to make any sort of income from your work.
I'm scared of falling off the grid, not meeting anyone my age, getting a middling job at a small company without anything near a career or livable wage (I just want to be able to put money in savings for once in my life). I'm worried we're setting ourselves up to have the same money problems (or worse) in a different setting. Most of all, I'm scared of jettisoning all chances of finding creatively fulfilling work or transitioning my creative pursuits into any sort of job.
Has anyone had a similar experience? What was it like leaving the city? Did life-socially or creatively-end?
Submitted February 06, 2017 at 05:57PM by A_is_for_Alt http://ift.tt/2kLTFui
