Choosing where you live is a big part of living

Thanks to Jim Benson for that bit of wisdom.

I've been talking to a bunch of people here in Ann Arbor who are thinking about moving out of town. There's not ever one reason for leaving - it's just the natural cycle of things, people often come to Ann Arbor for school, do their thing, get their degree, and then find that the field that they want to specialize in has its best opportunities in some other place.

My family has been through Ann Arbor regularly over the last 80 or so years, with my brothers and sister, my parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and even my great grandmother (who lived in a house where the Law Quad is now) spending some time in the city. Unlike all of them who stayed here for a few years and then moved on, I've been here more than 20 years, and feel more than a little bit settled. I'm not planning to leave any time soon.

Even if you stay in Ann Arbor you have to keep on your toes to have a social circle that doesn't leave town. There's a steady need to make new friends to replace those who have headed out for greener pastures elsewhere. It has turned out that there is now enough of an online community (albeit somewhat diffuse) that you can make at least initial contact with people via the net before seeing them in person - and that's really rather nice that there are enough people reachable that way who you can have a casual lunch with and not need to fly to Palo Alto and schedule something to stay up to date with what's going on.

Comments

[Scott T.]

Brian's blog didn't trackback, but he makes a good comment on your post:

http://joechip.net/brian/2005/07/08/choosing-where-to-live/

"Ironically enough, this is one of the things making Ann Arbor such a great place for everybody to leave — the sense that it (like many college towns) is a soothing yet hollow space for passersby.

"Ann Arbor is the gaudy shell that accretes around the University and the notion of an idyllic-yet-fancy-pants midwestern academic hamlet. It’s an increasingly shrill echo of itself. It satisfices, but does not satisfy. One time-honored solution: not to live here, but to enjoy the time spent and then, when holding the degree or the job or misc. Macguffin, to leave."

[Edward]

Another year, another cycle. School has started, and there are new neighbors, and some of last year's best friends are scattered around the world.

This year's calendar is most definitely an academic cycle, and as a result I will meet dozens of new people in a very short compressed span of time who are almost certainly all going to be gone in two years.

As some of my long-time friends start to leave town, I am discovering people who I've known for a long time who are in town but who I never see except occasionally at the food co-op or Farmers Market.