It's a double edged sword. One edge gives you possibilites to move anywhere in the country. You can move to any climate you like. From the swamps of south Georgia to the endless steppe of eastern Montana. You have so many options ahead of you. The other edge is that there are so many options to consider that one (me) never launches. I am standing at the largest buffet in the universe and I cannot choose what to add to my plate. Do I want to move to Milwaukee and live on the shore of Lake Michigan? Or maybe I should move down to Tuscon and live in the Arizona desert? Who knows. Meanwhile, the Hungarian equivalent of me is born in Dunakeszi. Dunakeszi is a 25 minute drive from the busy streets of Budapest.
Maybe what I am complaining about is the fact that I am still living in my "hometown". If I was Hungarian, Slovakian, Croatian, North Macedonian, Estonian, or Slovenian if I wanted to escape my hometown and move to "the city". I would I would hop on the train or in the car and head to Budapest, Bratislava, Zagreb, Skopje, Tallin, or Ljubljana. Here in the States there are so many options that you can't just go on autopilot and move to the big city in your country.
László Krasznahorkai, the Hungarian writer, left Hungary for the first time in 1987 at the age of 33. Hungary is smaller than the state I live in. In order for me to get to London I have to fly for 9 hours non-stop. In order for me to get to the east coast I have to fly for 4-5 hours.
I think that another problem with living in such a large country is also the travel times involved seeing people you care about. After college friends start moving away and your social circle gets smaller and smaller. Three years post grad I have friends in the Seattle area, Spokane, Pullman, Portland, San Antonio, Northern California, and Philadelphia. Seeing them is difficult and expensive. It is easy to see the friends who live in the same area as myself, but others it is much more difficult. For example, my friend Tyler had a surprise birthday party in San Antonio that I was invited to. I couldn't attend. It was just too expensive and would have required me to take off at least two days off from work. It sucked. If I was Spanish, for example, and was invited to a birthday party in Seville and I lived in Barcelona it would be less than two hour flight for around a hundred bucks. Seattle to San Antonio was two flights and over 500 bucks. And before anyone says that "Well, actually, if you are an EU citizen you can live anywhere in the EU so you may also be travelling great distances to see friends or family." Yes this is true, however most EU citizens still live in their home country. Belgium is home to around 10 million people. Only 6.1% of those 10 million were born in other EU countries. Six point one percent. Well that isn't that much. Yeah it sucks for those 6.1% who have to travel out of their country to see their friends and family in their hometown, but if I had to guess it would be that out of the 6.1% a lot of it is made up of Dutch, French, German and Luxembourgers. Also not to hate but Belgium is about 1/7th the size of my home state and I am not from a large state.
Maybe I am just complaining or maybe I have a legit point. Being from a large country does have its drawbacks (especially if you're from out west).
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