My wife and I went on our honeymoon to San Diego and to be honest I would be ok if I never went back there again.

For a few months I looked for work out there in 2017, even resorting to staying in Mexico while I was there. I was able to find a job at the Best Buy for 8 hours a week. Maybe it was coming from a small town in the Midwest, but in between Meetups, Horton's Plaza, Fry's Electronics, the weather, legal weed, relatively conservative outlook, and the innate beauty, I felt great. After my job search I had to move back home, but then 6 months later I moved to a conservative city whose unemployment rate is still one of the best in the nation, was able to buy a place 2 and a half years after moving out, had jobs in my field, had recently legalized medical marijuana, had good gun laws, and the weather, while not perfect, was an improvement over my Midwest town.

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However as I have traveled I have not been impressed with most the cities I have been to. With San Diego the Meetups were about the same for the smallish city I live in (I get with covid that changes things a bit) and Fry's is gone, so two main motivators are gone. Other cities either seem too big (LA and NY come to mind mostly), or their utility seems over exaggerated. Also a lot of them seem to be the same and somewhat cookie cutter. Maybe it is me getting older, but the novelty of most cities is hit or miss. These days I enjoy cities like Tacoma or Salt Lake City vs a Seattle or LA as the smaller cities have 95% of what I want. I do want novelty, but the one thing I have learned from this covid stuff and not being able to travel internationally too much is that it seems like a lot of novelty is outside the US vs inside the US. I will say though the natural beauty of the US is unparalleled and Chicago, Boston, Fort Lauderdale are pretty fun cities. Has anyone else found the usefulness of larger cities, outside employment, seems over exaggerated? It seems like in the past there was more to look forward to in bigger cities.