Why LA? Why not Buffalo?

Fascinating article I came across today. It contains most of the things I was planning on saying in this blog...maybe I should just give up and end it now. Read it here.

Yeah, I'm not too interested in Buffalo, New York. But a lot of the sentiments shared by these people are the same I have about NYC. Whenever I browse through craigslist ads for apartments in LA (or anywhere besides NYC, for that matter), I have this same exact thought: "And all of a sudden, they found they were staring at a very different what-could-be life: the one they’d be able to have if they were willing to leave New York."

I first came to NYC for the same exact reason--to live my "what-could-be life." And now that I've finished school, have a job, and am on my own, this is it. I am currently living my "what-could-be life." And it's really not as grand as I hoped it would be. And of course much of it is my own fault, not New York's. If I was willing to work for money, things might be better. But then again, things could be much worse. If I was more sociable, maybe I could have become an actual community member of the neighborhoods I've lived in and grown some roots. But I'm not, and I didn't. So in the end, this is it. My NYC-what-could-be life has peaked at the age of 25. Maybe not "peaked," but I can see what the remainder of my life would be like if I stayed. And it wouldn't be horrible. But it wouldn't be that grand, either.

So now, ironically, my what-could-be life is elsewhere, and it's no longer in NYC. And maybe LA is where it's at.

The shortest and sweetest quote from the article is this:

“I don’t miss my old life in New York. I only miss the life in New York I know I never would have had.”

Amen.

PS: Bonus points if you can recognize the skyline that's featured in the banner on top of my blog.