You belong in the city...

I cannot tell you how many times I've heard this from numerous friends and family, and maybe a few random people I've met on the street. Do I really belong in an urban metropolis? Do I look like I'm from the city? Sometimes I think I act like I am, the way I move out on the streets like i'm at union square or something, dodging the strollers and Fresnos visiting on a Thursday evening at SLO farmers market. I guess you could say I was born in a city, but not really, it didn't seem like a city to me. It was more of a suburb really, but the thing about southern california is that nothing is super connected, each little city is cut and before you know it you're in cerritos, or you're in long beach, or you're in costa mesa, whatever. The city down there to me is Los Angeles, duh! And I wasn't born in the heart of LA, so I can't really say I was born in a city. The shock of moving to my current hometown (population roughly 6,000 or more), was mindblowing. The hardest part was meeting new people, but it didn't take me too long to make some friends. Now I end up laughing at the tourists who are shocked we don't have a starbucks, (ewww, and they tend to ask me this at the coffee shop i work at! our coffee is way better by the way). But there was a short time when I really went/lived in the city...and that was my eighteenth summer, I moved to San Francisco and I stayed there for about seven months. I miss being anonymous and just walking everywhere looking at the buildings and sometimes meeting randoms on the bus. Or going to alamo square and smoking with a roomate, I didn't do enough. It was a great feeling, newly on my own, so young and free but at the same time I didn't realize how bogged down I was. I think it would be different now, I would've explored a lot more and met more people, but at that time it was about dependence and love...only wanting to stay trapped inside. No good. SO now, I think it's time to move again, this time it will be more methodical and planned out...not so much an impulse because a lover was living there, more for myself. One more year here and then who knows maybe Chicago? New York? Seattle? Any of those places would be fabulous, so i'm just going to keep my eyes open and feel out...because city life is something I feel I adapt too and can manage well in. But for now, I will just enjoy this quiet life and take advantage of the natural beauty before making my way to a concrete jungle.