Spend Time in a Big City – and Know When to Leave

Now that I’m a full-time resident of one of the biggest cities there is (that’s New York, for those new to the site), I’ve learned a lot about what it feels like to live in a constantly, often overwhelmingly urban environment. There are a ton of advantages, such as the convenience and closeness of every kind of store and museum and service, and other good things for my writerly life, such as the sheer number and diversity of people to observe, meet, and get interested in. On the whole, it can be a terrific experience to live in a big city.

No matter how invested you get in living in one of these cities, however, it can be important to know when to step away. New York has a funny way of engulfing you and your world view. It makes other cities, like my hometown of Boston, seem quaint and pedestrian. It makes you think this is the only place where things are really happening, where things are really important. It can give you too dramatically skewed a city-centric point of view.

So if you’re a city-dweller like me, what do you do to make sure you don’t become a city troll, some sort of city-obsessed person who won’t leave and thinks it’s the only important place? Do you take trips to other places? Do you go to the park or look out on the river and remember other worlds and other lives exist? What reminds you that the city isn’t the whole world?