What City do you Live in?

What City do you Live In?

Bakari Akil II, Ph.D.

Richard Florida, in his book, “Who’s Your City?,” discusses the impact of where you live has on your life. It affects you in so many ways. It determines the type of jobs you can find, the housing market you will enter and what social opportunities are available.

Where you live plays a major role in the quality of life you will lead overall. However, how many people truly evaluate where they live as a major determinant of success in their lives? Many people choose where they want to live based upon where there family is located; where there spouse’s family lives; the job offer they received or the last place they moved to with their parents as a child.

But for those who want a chance at living in a city that truly fosters their growth and they don’t mind travel why not take a more thought out approach? Why not look at the goals, plans and lifestyle objectives you have and match them up according to what cities of the world have to offer you?

Don’t let geography limit your growth.

In my own career as a professor, where I have lived has played a crucial role in my quality of life. I first made the mistake of accepting a position in a small college in a rural part of Georgia and turned down a choice position in New York because my wife and I didn’t want to be that far away from our families. It was a very bad decision. There was very little opportunity for us there.

We vowed never to do anything like that again. I applied for and received a position the following year at a college in Jacksonville, Florida. A city that has the biggest land mass of any city in the United States, 12th largest population in the US and opportunities to do just about anything we wanted to do. As a bonus, most of my family lives there as well.

If I hadn’t received the position, I would have moved to Jacksonville or my wife’s city, Miami, FL, anyway because I realized how much quality of life has an effect on my well being. We also just happen to have family members who live in two of the most populous and opportunity laden cities in the US; which helps. Before I was choosing based upon the job only. This time we chose according to our lifestyle as well as career opportunities.

What city you live in plays a big role in that.