I get it, I often daydream about life as a member of the lucky sperm club lol

I’m sorry you have had bad experiences and they’ve stuck with you. I wish you the best in the future!

Damn I would be so down to socialize fiber like that!!!

You’re going to love it - I can tell. Enjoy it!!

That’s awesome! I am supposed to get fiber in 6 months but with them neutering the rural broadband fund it might not happen, color me jealous!

How small are we talking? I moved from a large city (Ft. Lauderdale, FL 185k people) to an insanley large city (Brooklyn, NY 2.6 million) then as a sort of whip lash decided I wanted rural living so I took my RV to an area I was thinking of buying a few acres in (Mossyrock, WA ~1000 people) and plopped for a few months. It was not for me. Real “one coffee shop, one restaraunt, one bar” type place and while I loved it initially, the pain-in-the ass of day to day living was too much. Think 20 min drives to the closest gas station, 45 min drives to the nearest large grocer.

After moving around the area quite a bit, I landed on a place with ~35k people and to me, after two years, I am still loving it. Feels like small town rural living but downtown is a 10 min drive away with a bunch of eateries, bars, nightlife, etc.

Pros of ‘smaller’ town living (after trying a few areas that passed the vibe check):

• Community. With everything going on in the world right now it feels like you are powerless. Shrinking the scope of your action to your neighbors and your immediate area empowers you to make change in a way you’ve never felt before. You can participate and have direct impact in all sorts of ways, from city council meetings, to improvement projects, to just participating in a local farmers market.
• Safety. Some people may see this as a negative, and I guess it could be depending on how invasive your direct neighbors are lol, but for me on 5 acres it’s been incredible. Everyone knows if something is amiss and are not afraid to ‘ring the alarm’ as it were. When I first bought the property I was parking along the road as it was very overgrown, countless people stopped and asked if I needed help with the car (assuming I had broken down) then proceeded to introduce themselves and have met a ton of people in this way.
• Affordability. Land and housing is cheaper, groceries stay the same (assuming you are near a main interstate). You can buy a house for the price of an apartment in a large city.
• Quiet. Being in a large city is being in the belly of the beast. The gears are turning all night long. With smaller city living, it’s the opposite, peace and quiet, take a deep breath and relax. Night life and night owls still exist, but you have to go hunt them down.
• Less Police Presence. Crime rates drop inordinately as the population decreases, and with that, you see a lot less “boys in blue” - furthermore, because it’s usually just a few people, you get to know them and have less anxiety with interactions.
• Gardens and Greenery. Speaks for itself, less population density == less concrete paradise == more biodiversity.

Cons:

• Commute. If you don’t have a WFH gig, most smaller cities will not have an abundance of the type of work you do. You’ll most likely have a commute so somewhere with light rail might be awesome for you if that’s the case.
• Gentrification. Depending on where you come from and where you are moving to, you might be seen as a sort of ‘colonizer.’ I don’t get that sneer but I did get several people making sure I was not coming from California LOL.
• Slower Pace. In FL it’s known colloquially as “Cuban Time” basically meaning that time estimates should be taken with a grain of salt. The pace of the life is slower in a small town and you might find services taking forever to be completed. If you can relax and go with the flow though, it shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

Ok this turned into an essay, this new coffee bean smacks. Best of luck!

Makes me yearn for another thru-hike.

Nostalgia indeed, reminding me of the glory days of being a miami ripple rider

Sorry it was a joke in poor taste - I was referring to consuming psychedelic mushrooms (Penis Envy being a very potent strain)

Depth psychological psychotherapy - oh you mean Penis Envy (or Golden Teacher if you lemontek)? Yeah I cried for an hour but then it was a blast.

Like reddit but feels like an actual community. Just be forewarned, there are angry troglodytes here, just like any other online forum. Keep the positive, ignore the negative. Many people say to block .ml/etc adresses as they are here only to flame, but I haven’t seen that correlation yet.

What? Are you stupid? Realism with a tinge of optimism in this thread clearly designed to be a crying, woe-is-me circle-jerk? Get with it man! /s

Totally… Apple would never make new colors on their products for that reason, noooooo. A tale as old as marketing.

Many people’s social skills suck these days. I have found the best way to meet new people is to put yourself in a situation where you have to. Several life long friends of mine were forged in the fire of Muay Thai. Still others I met while adding certs to my Padi scuba stuff. When I first moved to NYC many years ago, I went on meetup and found a DND group. I don’t recommend it for health reasons, but I met my wife and several other life-long friends via a crippling hookah addiction lol. My point is go places where communication is essential. Many libraries have free cooking classes, etc. Another good place.

“Youth is wasted on the young and wealth on the old” - someone’s paraphrasing of Shaw

I think it’s a normal part of human nature that you experience all the time without corpo meddling. Have they exploited that urge for new? sure, just like they exploit every human emotion.

No I feel jealous lol

Reads like PBF which is high praise from me.

Like my beloved Nokia N900 and my current Pixel 6 had a bastard love child and I am all about it.