moving - by jaron - the way home

Common factors on deciding where to live: number of friends, job opportunities, city culture, quality of life. I considered all of those things when I decided to move to San Francisco. But none of them ultimately was the compelling factor. My decision was almost entirely based upon a single reason — San Francisco was the major city where I knew the least people. I wanted a clean start. It feels silly, certainly, to hold tight onto the romantic promise of the unknown, to feel like a small child running from home. At parties I tell people it's exciting to start over, to embrace the blank canvas. Implied: The endless possibility! Implied: The reinvention of someone who leaves their past behind! In actuality, building a new community is an often fruitless task. I'm reaching out to people I haven't spoken to in months, years even. I'm attending events where I don't know a single person. I walk alone to museums and cafes and gyms and the grocery store and google jazz bars sf and check transi

Common factors on deciding where to live: number of friends, job opportunities, city culture, quality of life. I considered all of those things when I decided to move to San Francisco. But none of them ultimately was the compelling factor. My decision was almost entirely based upon a single reason — San Francisco was the major city where I knew the least people. I wanted a clean start. It feels silly, certainly, to hold tight onto the romantic promise of the unknown, to feel like a small child running from home. At parties I tell people it's exciting to start over, to embrace the blank canvas.