Where To Live

The air was hot and amazingly still. Two hours had gone by since the sun had set; the heat from midday was hardly letting up. Earlier, the air conditioner in my house had broken. I’d spent the day outside, kayaking to the beach with some classmates.  I lay in bed, exhausted.The skin on my arms was particularly warm, tinged red due to slight sunburn. I waited and waited for the Sandman to lull me to sleep.

I did the usual things when the still-buzzing mind delays rest. I grabbed my phone, and logged into Facebook. Boredom moved me to Twitter and Instagram. I slid my phone back to the floor. Still, my mind would not break its relentless consciousness. I’m about to go on Facebook again when I receive a text message, the kind that makes you want to laugh out loud. Midnight begins to makes its way nearer, and the conversation takes a rest. I let my mind wander.

My thoughts are moving slow, finally. I close my eyes, and notice that what I thought was a soundless night was not so soundless at all. There was a fan, whirring atop the head of my bed. The noise itself was monotonous, but it had the same exact volume as something, something familiar. Ah, yes. The fan carried the same volume as Salamanca, a city I would not soon forget. There, the nights were full of all forms of life. Cars were constantly heard in the streets below, and even more loud were the merry voices of the night owls still prowling the night.

I’ve heard that as a majority, people in their twenties tend to migrate toward the cities. The lure of life constantly changing and things always happening is appealing to younger generations. This obviously does not hold true for all, and maybe it’s a misconception, but I know that this idea definitely applies to me. I’m the kind of person who spends their time trying to find things to do that have yet to be done. I like researching different places just to imagine living there. After spending twelve years as a military brat, I have developed a thirst for new experiences.

Ideally, I would love to move to a city for college, or right after college. On my list are Seattle, Boston, and San Francisco. But those aspirations are often rethought, over and over. The West coast holds allure, a new place to discover. The East coast is familiar, and thus not as attractive. What city to choose, if any city at all? Lots of factors help a person make a decision. Sometimes, having your family nearby is what you want. But maybe what you really want is a full-blown adventure, to be someplace that you have no connection to whatsoever. Either way, moving to a city allows for any amount of discovery, meeting new people, and in the end, a grand quest to tell all someday.