Hey all! New to this sub, but love everything it stands for. I’m at a pretty solid point in my career, but feeling extremely restless like I’m wasting my time living this way and wanting a major change. That being said, my family was deeply affected by the 2008 recession and I have a lot of financial trauma (lol don’t we all)
I’m not really comfortable moving to a lower paying career all at once, even though I am fed up with my current career path/industry. I currently live in NYC and although I love the culture, diversity, entertainment, and excitement, I don’t like how centered everything is on consumption and capitalism here. Almost everyone I meet is a workaholic or looking for a workaholic partner so they can stop working. A lot of social activities here cost money or lead to drinking (I’m 26, for reference).
Although I like the opportunities and perks that big cities bring, I’m wondering if leaving New York might help me start to decenter work from my life. I feel like I can’t escape it here due to the cost of living and general attitude. I’m curious if anyone else has felt this way and if moving helped.
I’m considering some medium/large West Coast cities because I want to spend more time being active and in nature and value a slower culture, but I don’t know if I’m seeing things through rose colored glasses… For example, L.A. feels very different, but I have seen & heard that people are very stressed there too and there’s obviously a lot of consumption/capitalism too. It does seem like the people I know that live there have less conventional 9-5 type careers though and many are entrepreneurs, etc. so that is different than the predominately corporate workforce I experience here.
Please comment your thoughts & experiences below!