![Moving from a small town to a big city will greatly change your life.](https://www.mymovingreviews.com/move/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/big-city-1.jpg)
Highlights
- If you move from a small town to a big city, your life will change drastically.
- Big cities offer numerous opportunities and endless options that are not available in small towns. The chance to start on a clean slate is another great benefit of moving to a big city.
- Life in the city, however, is more expensive than life in the countryside – and the competition is enormous. Pollution, heavy traffic, higher crime rates, and greater stress are also serious drawbacks of big city living.
- If you decide to relocate to a big city, you need to research it well, plan your finances wisely, take along only what you really need and love, and ensure reliable moving help.
Small town living vs big city living is a century-old dilemma most people face at some point in their lives. And while there is no right answer to this quandary, there is always a right solution for each specific situation.
Under certain circumstances, it may be best to move to a big city – for college, for a better job, for an opportunity to pursue your interests, etc. In such a case, you’ll have to get ready for one of the greatest challenges in your life.
Whether you are thrilled by the idea of plunging into the colorful dynamics of big city life or daunted by the sheer size and chaotic lifestyle of large metropolitan areas, the relocation will have a huge impact on your daily routine, your personality, and your mindset, especially if you’re coming from a small town or a peaceful rural area.
To be able to overcome the cultural shock and build a successful and enjoyable life for yourself in the big city, you need to be well prepared – to know what to expect and how to deal with each and every quirk of the city.
What to Know Before Moving to a Big City
Whatever your reasons to move to a big city, life in the metropolis will challenge you in ways you never considered possible. From great cultural and ethnic diversities to constant competitions for status and wealth, you will face a new trial every single day in the big city. This will help you grow up fast and find yourself, expand your horizons and achieve independence, self-reliance, and self-esteem, but will also make you feel like you’re drowning, losing your identity and your purpose, becoming bitter and resentful.
So, why move to a big city? Here are some of the most essential pros and cons of moving to a big city to consider before making the decisive step:
Benefits of Moving to a Big City
When moving to a big city for the first time, you will discover a whole new world of possibilities, potentials, and prospects.
Great Opportunities
![There are numerous advantages to moving to a big city.](https://www.mymovingreviews.com/move/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/big-city-opportunities.jpg)
Whether you want to advance your studies, improve your skills, enhance your professional expertise, acquire new abilities, expand your horizons, or pursue a specific passion, you will have the chance to do so in the big city. It offers numerous opportunities that you can never have access to in a small town – diverse career options, excellent educational resources, large consumer market, etc.
There will be great competition, but there will be plenty of options as well – a lot of different colleges, companies, business niches, professional societies, artistic clubs, and so on, and so on. Whatever your passions and skills, you’ll be able to reach your full potential.
Endless Options
When you have just moved to a big city, you may be literally overwhelmed by the incredible variety of options available.
There will no longer be just one of anything – one mall, one movie theater, one concert hall, one church, one library, one medical center, one restaurant, one pub, one nightclub, one main street, one park, etc. – there will be plenty of amenities and conveniences within your reach:
- Enormous shopping centers will offer products from all over the world;
- You will have Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Thai, Mediterranean, Italian and who-knows-what-other types of food at your grasp within a 5 minutes walk or so;
- There will be a different social, cultural, or sports event every second night;
- The number of restaurants, bars, and nightclubs will be larger than you care to count;
- You’ll have a hard time choosing among the available cultural and sports activities;
- There will be so many entertainment options at every time of the day and night that you’ll completely forget the meaning of words like “boredom” or “monotony”; and so on.
Entertainment venues, hobby clubs, recreational centers, green areas – the big city has it all. And let’s not forget about the top quality medical care you can easily receive in a large metropolitan area, but don’t have access to in a small town.
Cultural Diversity
When moving from a small town to a big city, you’ll find yourself exposed to a variety of different perspectives, values, ideologies, and points of view.
The great cultural and ethnic diversity, typical for the megalopolises, will help you expand your knowledge of the world, learn to appreciate differences, and reject stereotypes.
More Privacy
The mere idea of having greater privacy in an overcrowded city than in a small town may seem ridiculous. And yet, when you move to a big city, you’ll find it’s true:
![Moving from a small town to a big city will bring radical changes to your life.](https://www.mymovingreviews.com/move/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/crowded.jpg)
- You’ll be anonymous – No one will know your friends, your siblings, your parents and grandparents, so you’ll not be compared to them, judged for their actions, or favored for their sake. No one will know you since you were a little kid, no one will know your past mistakes and achievements, no one will expect anything from you, so you’ll be able to start on a clean slate;
- People won’t care about your personal life – If you bring a date home late at night, or break up with your years-long partner, or marry a person twice your age, it won’t be the chatter around town. Whether you are gay or straight, single or divorced, people just won’t care – as long as you don’t get in their way;
- Others will not find you weird – No matter what you do, there is a good chance someone else will have already done it or something even weirder. So, there will be no social pressure to conform to certain norms or behavioral patterns – you can say whatever you want, wear whatever you want, and be your most eccentric self without any fear of judgment. Differences are actually encouraged in large metropolitan areas as they make for a more colorful and happier society;
- You’ll be often alone – There will be many people around, but everyone will be wrapped up in their own worlds and will pay you no attention at all. Unless you have close friends or family in the big city, you may actually feel quite lonely and isolated amidst the big crowd.
Last but not least, you will find yourself and grow as a person – regardless of your age, moving to a big city will teach you a number of valuable lessons. You will learn to survive in the concrete jungle, find solutions even when there seems to be no solution, stand up for your beliefs, assert yourself, and peer at any event in your life with new perspective and heightened awareness.
The competitive nature of the big city will provoke you to look for constant improvement and self-development, to achieve your best in all spheres of life. Your attitude will become challenge-welcoming and you won’t be held back by fears and doubts – you will have the chance to create the life you’ve always wanted for yourself.
Now that you’re familiar with the greatest advantages of moving to a big city, you may wonder about the possible drawbacks.
Disadvantages of Moving to a Big City
When moving to a big city from a small town, you’ll find that life moves at a quicker pace than you’re used to. Everyone will seem to be in a rush and everything will happen twice as fast as it did before. While this is not necessarily bad, it may leave you dizzy and unsettled at the beginning. And it’s just one of the many not too positive differences you’ll have to face after moving to the big city.
Higher cost of living
Life in the city is much more expensive than life in the countryside.
![There will be some time before the quirks of big city life sink in.](https://www.mymovingreviews.com/move/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/city-traffic-1.jpg)
Not only will housing, food, and transportation (as well as utilities, taxes, medical care, clothing, etc.) cost you about twice as much as it did in your small hometown, but there will be too many tempting “opportunities” to spend your hard-money as well – pubs, theaters, boutiques, and plenty of events you’ll want to attend and activities you’ll want to participate in.
All and all, it’s a lot easier to spend money in the big city than to make it.
Great competition
You may have been one of the few people in town to have a degree in electrical engineering, for example, but there will be hundreds or even thousands of people with such a degree in the big city. No matter what your field of expertise is, the competition will be enormous.
So even though career opportunities in the metropolises are much more abundant, diverse, and lucrative than in the countryside, you may have a hard time finding a good job in your new city.
And you’ll face great competition in all spheres of life in the big city, not just job hunting – from proving to be the best dancer in your favorite night club to securing a better parking spot for your car.
Heavy traffic
It’s no secret that traffic in the big city is an enormous challenge – not only will there be tons of vehicles on every street and traffic jams at every second crossroads, but the road layout itself may be quite confusing for newcomers and the traffic laws may be a bit different from the ones you’re used to.
Not to mention that finding a parking place may take an extra hour of your time and plenty of dollars from your pocket every single day.
And even if you choose to use the public transportation system, your commute time is unlikely to get shorter and your nerves are not likely to be spared either.
Safety concerns
Large metropolitan areas have become notorious for their high crime rates, surging homicide incidents, drug trafficking, alcohol abuse, sexual offence, gangster activities, and traffic accidents.
Protecting yourself, your loved ones, and your property in the big city is no easy task – you need to be extremely careful and vigilant at all times and take efficient precautionary measures to secure your new home as soon after the relocation as possible.
Lack of time
![Big cities are overcrowded.](https://www.mymovingreviews.com/move/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/closed-quarters.jpg)
In a larger city, you will have to navigate your way through crowded places, fight for a parking spot, spend hours on the bus, wait longer in line, wait for a table in the restaurant, and so on.
Time will become your most precious commodity – not only will you waste hours for your daily commutes and still longer hours for running simple errands, but your days will be booked with appointments and commitments, morning till night, several weeks ahead and you won’t have a minute left to spare.
Less personal space
You will not only have to settle for a smaller home in your new city (partly because of the high rents, partly because of the lack of spacious living accommodations in large metropolitan areas), but will also have to accept that “close quarters” are the norm in a big city – the streets, the buses, the stores, every place you set your foot in will be busy and overcrowded.
Poorer health
Pollution is a great problem in all big cities around the world. So is the lack of opportunities for outdoor activities and easy escapes to nature.
The poor air quality, chlorinated or impure tap water, sedentary lifestyle, and lack of greenery can easily result in allergic symptoms, respiratory problems, and various other health issues.
Needless to say, all of the above factors, combined with the hectic schedules and social pressure, typical of large urban areas, cause plenty of stress and anxiety to big city people.
See our city moving guides for more specific information concerning the pros and cons of moving to various major cities within the country and useful tips for your relocation to any of them.
Be that as it may, every coin has two sides, so regardless of any eventual drawbacks, you will still have your reasons to try urban life and will probably still want to move to a big city. So, if you’re up to the challenge, it’s time to set your plan in motion – organize the actual relocation process.
Thanks so much for sharing, I really agree with a lot of your tips here! Just relocated to NYC from Missouri for work and I’m really loving it. The liberty of starting fresh is awesome as you mention! The only negative was the move itself, it was very stressful in my case. If I could give a tip to anyone out there it would be to make the moving process itself as stress-free as possible. This will free up a lot of time for networking and other purposes. I ended up even selling all of my old furniture to start fresh in NYC. The great folks over at Furnishr set me up with all of the furniture I needed for my new place. Other than that, just try to relax and enjoy the changes!