Who's Your City?

I've been meaning to post this for a while, but like many things right now, adding to my blog has been put on hold. But, today is the one-year anniversary of me getting the keys to my apartment, so it's an especially fitting day to post this.

When I moved in I was very insistent that the apartment was my own place. It was a token of independence, both personally and financially. Even though Jordan was here every night, I seemed reluctant to call it our place, but now I can't even think of it any other way.

Which leads me to one of the few books I'm reading right now: Who's Your City, by the brilliant Richard Florida. Early in this book, he poses a number of questions, calling readers who have seriously pondered their answers to these questions a "very small minority."

I spent the better half of a few years pondering these exact questions as I struggled to picture myself anywhere but Ottawa. Who knew that a year or two later, I'd be in Hamilton, loving this city more than I thought possible.

Florida asks his readers to think about the answers to these questions. So, here goes:

1. How do you like the place you're living now? Is it somewhere you really want to be? Does it give you energy? When you walk out onto the street-or the country lane-in the morning, does it fill you with inspiration, or stress? Does it allow you to be the person you really want to be? Are you achieving your personal goals? Is it a place you would recommend to your relatives and friends?

Hamilton is energetic in ways I hadn't even thought about when I moved here a year ago. I chose Hamilton for one primary reason — the cost of living is considerably lower here than most other parts of the G.T.A. What I've discovered is an arts community that seems unparallelled to the suburbs I grew up in, to Ottawa, and even to Toronto, which is often cold and clique, for lack of a better word. It's a tight-knit community, because the size of it's downtown allows it to be, a luxury that Torontonians likely don't have. And I do recommend it to people, though it seems most people have preconceptions about this city, many of which aren't true at all.

2. Have you thought about moving? If so, what are the top three places on your radar screen? What do you like about them? Specifically, what do you think they offer you? How would your life be different in these places?

I've spent way too much time than I should of over the last few years contemplating moving. I've contemplated moving to and from Ottawa more times than I can count. I contemplated living in Toronto, instead of Hamilton, and though I love this city, I still find myself going down the mental checklist of all the other places in the world I'd love to visit or live. Among them, Europe and Canada's east coast. And yes, I do think about Ottawa still, especially as I feel myself drifting away from the people and the places that were so close to me for more than four years of my life. But my life would be different and I'm still young. I feel that right now I'm in exactly the place I need to be right now, focusing on my career and paying down my looming student loans while enjoying a practical cost of living.

3. Have you ever sat down and compared where you're living now to those places? Honestly, have you given this a fraction of the thought and energy you've given to your job and career prospects, or if you're single, to your dating life?

I have spent too much time contemplating these things and I'm happy to be at a point now where I know longer need to — at least for now!