Small town living to the big city: Is denver a good idea? (Littleton: home)

[adventurum]

As of last week, I graduated from college. I am 23 years old and single. I grew up in a town with no more than 15,000 and currently live in Chico, CA which is still relatively small. I have a very close group of friends in Chico but do not want to get trapped in nor cal forever. I feel like I have much more to offer to myself. I love the mountains, sports, and anything outdoors. I have a degree in Kinesiology and CO seems like a great place for me be a personal trainer or to do something with my degree. Is Denver going to be too overwhelming for a small town country boy? Are there any other surrounding towns, cities that may be better to live in?

[2bindenver]

tahoe

[Count David]

Originally Posted by adventurum

Is Denver going to be too overwhelming for a small town country boy?

Not if you want to um, adventur (sic).

[denverian]

That all depends - do you want to experience urban living?

[theburtonfamily]

I graduated college in 1995 and headed west on I-70 from St Louis, free as a bird and looking for a great place that was close to nature. Just picked a direction and started to drive, not knowing where I would end up but knowing I'd wither away staying where I was. So after a while I ended up in Denver and never left! I stayed in a youth hostel in downtown Denver, quite an experience. I'm not really into the urban lifestyle so I moved to Golden which is a small town sort of place in commuting distance to Denver, and then the southern suburbs. Wish I'd have stayed in Golden - mountains all around, that small-town closeness, fantastic - would like to head back that way in the coming years. There are lots of small towns very close to Denver! The rest of my family from Ohio moved here a few years later. Friendliest people, well educated, lots of hunting and fishing close by as well as the symphony! This is YOUR time, so take the plunge and just travel around and see the world. Pretty soon there will be a spouse, kids, a mortgage, a job you can't live without. Right now you have the rare opportunity to go wherever you want and take that risk. If you end up in Denver, I think you'll love it, but take a couple weeks and see places all over and you'll find the right place for you. But you won't know unless you try! Good Luck!

[vegaspilgrim]

Also consider Reno-- mountains and climate similar to Denver, except way closer to where you live now, more people who will be familiar with Chico State, etc.

[Brian_M]

Originally Posted by adventurum

Is Denver going to be too overwhelming for a small town country boy?

To put your thoughts into perspective, I was born and raised in Wyoming (Lander, ranged from 3000 to about 7000 in population while I lived there, with the low number right in the middle), went to college in Bozeman, MT for a couple years and then moved to Washington DC for 4 years, Phoenix for a year then Atlanta for another 5 years before going small town again for 5 years. My thoughts were, it's just someplace else to live. There are different things to do/see in the different places, some completely suck (Phoenix for me, it'd take a few hundred million dollars to get me living there again), some just sorta suck, some are pretty damn nice except for a few bad things.... and I'm hoping that there's someplace out there that has mostly positives. The biggest problem is that what's good for you now, won't be good for you in 5~10 years as you grow and change.

So, while you're young and unencumbered, get out and take a sampling of the life that can be had in a few places. You'll learn soon enough what you like, what you Hate, and maybe get pointed to a place that's best for you. I moved to DC when I was 21, without any sort of degree, without a job or a place to stay, just a couple people I "knew" through the internet. It's fairly simple to get by when you're young and single.

I'm back in Georgia for Christmas (wife grew up here) and it always puts where I'm living back into a whole new perspective. This time, it's positive (having just moved to Denver from my home town in Wyoming)... about the worst complaint I have about Denver and the attitudes there are they seem to be aggressively held and spoken without a good foundation/reason (an emotional belief argued and spouted as logical/reasonable even though it's clearly not). Not everyone is like this, but then again it's the vocal minority who's always heard.

I suspect the most important thing to keep in your mind is that no matter where you go, there's someone who wouldn't live there, even if paid grandly, and someone who couldn't imagine living anywhere else.

Brian

[misplaced1]

I've been to Chico more than a few times. Not too bad of a place.

I spent my late teen years in Denver. It's grown a LOT since then. That was the late 80's. I enjoyed it there and I loved the weather and a drive up to the mountains is wonderful. There was an amphitheater, drag strip, museums, ice skating, you name it. Thing is you want to be in a good neighborhood.

I'd take a trip out there and see what you think.

[Kibbiekat]

If you decide Denver is too urban for you, you can always find a nice smaller town nearby, like Littleton or Castle Rock.