Moving to Northern VA from Atlanta and need help

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by claremarie

Learning to be happy wherever your job/family takes you is a very important life skill. If you don't have a choice about where you are living at the moment, then you make the best of it, realizing that the vast majority of the world's population would be thrilled to live deep in the northern Virginia suburbs.

Unfortunately I'm not like the "vast majority" of people I suppose who find NoVA's exurbs to be "thrilling." I just look at the congestion, pushiness, high housing prices relative to salaries paid, lack of architectural charm, plethora of corporate chains, and many people who have proven to me since I moved here that "worldliness" is preferable to "goodness" and wonder why I can't fall in love all of these amenities the way the "vast majority" do. I've tried to make lemonade out of lemons for a year now. I don't know how many years more I can handle of "Stepford."

For me I'll maintain my position with the advice offered to the OP. Not everyone can let zeal and enthusiasm for a career opportunity overpower their disdain for its physical location. I thought suburban DC would be more like suburban Philadelphia or suburban Pittsburgh, each of which offer a plethora of suburban areas that are more "established" (think City of Falls Church) all over their metropolitan regions. It is painful on my soul to live somewhere so far removed from those sorts of walkable, vibrant, nostalgic, quaint, and family-friendly environments. This is why I've decided I'm going to move and finally say "shut up" to the people who tell me I'm a failure or that I'm making a huge mistake.

OP, there ARE places here you'll love living in, but they ARE in very close proximity to the District and are very expensive. I really wish NoVA had more quasi-urban environments, but even Reston, which is most people's idea of a "solution", fails to bridge the gap between suburbia and urbanity. I wish you the best of luck, but be 100% certain you'll love not only the job but ALSO the area in which you'll be residing. My mistake? The job was too good to pass up, but I naively thought that zeal would overpower my disdain for the 'burbs. It hasn't.

[Denton56]

Originally Posted by claremarie

Learning to be happy wherever your job/family takes you is a very important life skill. If you don't have a choice about where you are living at the moment, then you make the best of it, realizing that the vast majority of the world's population would be thrilled to live deep in the northern Virginia suburbs.

Great advice! That's exactly what all of our ancestors had to do. They had to learn to be happy wherever they could find work, or land to farm. For most of us our ancestors came from other countries and learned to cope where they landed, or moved west, to find jobs and farms. Most people in America do not have a choice where they live, because of jobs and family obligations, yet they are able to cope and find happiness. You are SO right, most folks in America would be thrilled to live in a nice apartment in the NOVA suburbs with a good job that supported their lifestyle. There's plenty to enjoy in NOVA and thousands of wonderful people.