I entering my 20s, should I travel or should I settle down in my home city? It's an important question you have to ask yourself, because now you're 'really' transitioning into adulthood, therefore the decision from here-on will have an effect on how your life unfolds. Here's some useful advice I can give you from my experience with this.
I'm sure you will feel pressured by your parents or your peers to "settle down", "get your shit together", and these might be words of encouragement, but what if you don't want to settle down? What if you're not really happy with where you're living and with the circumstances of your life at the moment? What if you've been wanting to explore the world a bit before settling down? Wanting to go somewhere far, far away from everyone and everything…? I'd encourage you to do that instead of settling down, especially if you're in your 20s, you just finished University and you're not sure what to do now. It's not a bad thing to establish yourself, and get your career going, get yourself an apartment, a dog or a cat, and just stick it out in the city you're already in… but if you've never really travelled then you're missing out and you 'don't really know' that there are better options out there - in terms of places to live. The city will mold who you are. If it's a big city, with lots of people, and constant chaos, you will become what the city is. After a bit of time you start to think like the people there, you start to behave like the people there, and you become one with the city. Just as if you were to live somewhere rural, work on a farm, hang with animals, you'd probably become one with that place and if you were to go to the CITY, you'd be like "WTF is this!?" it would trip you out because it's a completely different environment with different energy. And that happens anywhere you live, after a time the city will create "who you are". A good question to ask yourself then is "Can I see myself living here for the next 3 - 5 years?". Because once you decide to take that job, or even to attend University there (if you yet haven't), you'll be there for a good while. So you need to make sure that this is the city that fits you. And to do this you sort of have to list qualities and characteristics that you look for in a city? (it's sort of like finding a partner) For example, I look for a city that has lots of nature and hills, is fairly clean, there's lots of sunshine, the people are friendly and open, and there's some sort of spiritual community. These differ from person to person. You might like a city with lots of rain, or a city close to the mountains, and city where people like to stay up and party, or a city where your religion is prevalent, it's all up to you, but you should list these qualities and characteristics down because after doing this you can see if the city 'you're living in' fits those. But again lots of people might have doubts… "Every place is the same!", "a perfect place doesn't exist", and let me tell you, once you start travelling, you'll see that the world is not all the same - there are places that you probably never thought existed. This is why I'd say, don’t settle down just yet. If you have some money saved up, you're young and have little responsibility, it's time to travel and explore the world. Or even if you don't have money saved up you can do work exchange programs (more on that on my site) and travel to different countries and learn about the differences that exist out there. Because I can't imagine myself living in a place I do not like, for years and years, when I could have spent that time living in a place, a culture, around people that resonate with my attitudes and my way of thinking. So again for all of the people there who are being pressured to take that job, or to "just settle down already", don't follow the herd, go and explore the world, do your own thing for a bit, gain some new experiences and see some new places. If you've enjoyed this short article, please share it with someone who could use it, or give it a like! Thanks.