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You're 21 years old and you're thinking like a 40 year old. GET OUT OF SCRANTON NOW WHILE YOU CAN. Experience new places. Travel, go see new things. Go live in a big city, a small city, a city in the desert, a city abroad, anywhere but Scranton. Don't think about marriage, kids, taxes, mortgages etc. until you've lived a little. You can always come back to Scranton when you're ready to settle down. No 21 year old should resign themselves to a single location. The best things in life happen to you when you get out of your comfort zone.
This is my favorite response yet. ScranBarre, at the ripe old age of 21 your biological clock isn't exactly ticking yet. Are you planning to start a family now? Personally I wish we could develop temporary sterilization, zap everyone at age 15 and say, "ok now you're incapable of reproducing until after age 30."
Anyway, who says you can't move around a bit and then settle in Scranton (or wherever else you may wish)? If you're a dreamer, as I suspect you are, why not go out and test the limits? See what you can accomplish. Why limit the options to NYC or Philadelphia? Why not Chicago, or Toronto, or London, or Tokyo? And since you don't have a family yet, now is the best and easiest time to try it out.
And, as someone above said, moving vans run both ways. I read threads in the NJ boards by people who moved from NJ to the Sunbelt or elsewhere, experienced it for a year or two or twenty, and are now ready to come back home. I left my home state at age 21. If you ask me now, 4 years later, if I'd go back "home" I'd say "no way!" but I reserve the right to change my mind later.
If you're content in the SWBH metroplex and have no desire to leave ever, great. But if you have the desire to experience different places, it makes sense to do it now while you're young, not tied to your career, etc. Just don't sit around for a couple of decades and then regret it later with the "what ifs."
As a 21-year-old most of my elders continually try to encourage me to leave Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (pop. 551,000) in pursuit of "bigger" and "better" things in my life. I don't exactly consider myself to be an academic standout, but I can agree that in my chosen career path (public accounting), I would have a much easier time locating suitable employment opportunities in a larger metropolitan area than I would if I choose to stay here in my own more intimate area of Pennsylvania.
I realize that as a very ambitious and goal-oriented person who also wishes to run for political office someday that I may very well become an example of a "big fish in a little pond" in that I'm going to have my professional endeavors hampered by a glass ceiling due to the diminutive size of my city. I could very easily relocate two hours to my east or south to New York City or Philadelphia, respectively, but then there I'd just fade into obscurity living a dull existence as a "small fish in a big sea," where any personal successes are overshadowed by the many others who are vying for competition for the same position.
What would you rather be? Would you rather be the "top of the heap" in a smaller, more intimate setting, or would you rather be a "Joe Nobody" in a bustling environment? In other words, do you want to be King of Podunk or an unrecognized part of the huddling mass?
ScranBarre, my advice to you as someone who may potentially run for public office someday.....cancel your city-data account. Everything you post here is saved for posterity, and even the most harmless things can get twisted and used against you by ruthless opponents. The internet is the worst thing to happen to politicians since television.
ScranBarre, my advice to you as someone who may potentially run for public office someday.....cancel your city-data account. Everything you post here is saved for posterity, and even the most harmless things can get twisted and used against you by ruthless opponents. The internet is the worst thing to happen to politicians since television.
I think he wasn't serious but it that would be a bit strange if someone found his account here, it would take a ton of digging to find.
Oh, and I support Vegaspilgrims post completely.
I think he wasn't serious but it that would be a bit strange if someone found his account here, it would take a ton of digging to find.
Oh, and I support Vegaspilgrims post completely.
It's not like I'm aspiring to be governor or anything. I wish to serve as a member of a neighborhood association in Scranton and perhaps eventually work my way up to city councilman. I think my posts on here have been more beneficial to the city than detrimental.
In your case, SWB, it's not so much the size of your metro area that's the problem, it's that you're living in an economically depressed area. I think as long as you are able to squeak out a decent living in Scranton, stay there and make it work. But if you find you can't even make a living there as an accountant (ie-- can't get a job), then you may have no choice but to move on. Personally, I think you should give Omaha a second consideration. From everything we know about you, it could end up being that Omaha might be just your kind of town.
Scranbarre this is a sign
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