19 year old wants to move to where the action is!

[Onceuponatwink]

Hi everyone,

I don't know if this is the right place to post this, so excuse me.

I am 19 years of age, just started college, and live in a city full of conservatives and agriculture. I have been feeling "dead" for a long time now. There really isn't a gay scene here, and I just want to go wild and experience being young and having fun. I want to go to New York City, LA, San Fransisco, somewhere where there is a big population and a lot of diversity. I know education is important, but I also feel I'm waisting away doing things other people are telling me to do.

Yes I'm out to family and friends, they all support me.

My question is, how do you guys feel about this? Would you recommend me moving to a big city? What are your experiences? Thanks

 

[lambdaboy]

The most important thing especially if you want o move to a major city is ECDUCATION. I went in the army young with just High School. Once in work I went nights to college took me 5 years lots of work but wished I had done it at your age. I worked my way up from a clerk to A Senior VP in Foreign Exchange Trading for one of the top banks on Earth. I was able to retire when most people are in the prime of there career and Now live in London England and about to buy a House in Spain. GO TO SCHOOL be it college or some other trade if that does not work and your life will be so much better!

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

Onceuponatwink, do what you really believe in, but do bear in mind that decisions have consequences.

If you quit school now and headed off to the big city would you be content to do the worst imaginable jobs for the next few years, or even the rest of your life?

Also, just about any movie you've seen about young people running off to the city and making it there is set decades before the present. For instance, our generation (I was born in '77) that means we've grown up with an impossibly seedy and criminal image of New York (as in Cruising, Serpico and Who killed Teddy Bear). Nowadays Manhattan seems much cleaned up and housing prices have gone through the roof. I also doubt if you'd be able to relive Tales of the City in present day San Francisco (but not sure because I've never been there).

 

[JohnnyAnger]

You can move to the big cities, but it is not going to be the dream you imagine if you don't finish your education. You will just be one of the millions of people that turn up and expect to live the high life, but get dragged down by poor employment opportunities and high living costs. You ain't going to be old when you finish your degree are you anyway! You can go to these places with more to offer.

Is there any chance of transferring universities to somewhere a bit more exciting in the meantime? I don't really get the US system, but it seems people manage to move universities a lot easier than here.

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

You can move to the big cities, but it is not going to be the dream you imagine if you don't finish your education.

Like lamdaboy pointed out, education doesn't have to be college, I can think of several trades that that you can learn that are much more useful than some popular college degrees.

Also, if you started working in restaurants you could conceivably become a chef and make good money, without having to start out gouging your way through a measly overpriced college degree. Or you could join the army.

 

[Willie Boy]

Stay in college. Stay where you are. Start by taking trips on vacations/holidays, visit some of these places you think you want to live. Learn about life there and what you'll need to make it. Learn about the culture in these places. Learn about actual life outside of your cloistered existence..... Because if you don't, if you just up and move hoping to live some romanticized wild and fun life you are in for a rude (and quite brutal) awakening. And you probably wont survive it. Just remember, the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, but once you hop that fence you see what is truly there, and often times it isn't as simple as hopping over the fence again to get back.

 

[FPNY]

I agree with the other members....get your education out of the way. It's no fun to live in one of the big cities where all the action is if you can't afford to participate. Finish school, have fun while you are doing it and then go have a blast in all the big cities of the world!

 

[SLOPPYSECONDS]

Hi everyone,

I don't know if this is the right place to post this, so excuse me.

I am 19 years of age, just started college, and live in a city full of conservatives and agriculture. I have been feeling "dead" for a long time now. There really isn't a gay scene here, and I just want to go wild and experience being young and having fun. I want to go to New York City, LA, San Fransisco, somewhere where there is a big population and a lot of diversity. I know education is important, but I also feel I'm waisting away doing things other people are telling me to do.

Yes I'm out to family and friends, they all support me.

My question is, how do you guys feel about this? Would you recommend me moving to a big city? What are your experiences? Thanks

well
_say notin_

planet earth goin dead if a help

anyway

cheer up a millions a foolees help ya figa obvious afta sell ya teys feelins on stuff
"wot dat?"
not a lot

tinku

 

[Harke the Boeotarch]

I agree with the other members....get your education out of the way. It's no fun to live in one of the big cities where all the action is if you can't afford to participate. Finish school, have fun while you are doing it and then go have a blast in all the big cities of the world!

Get it out of the way either by going through with it or skipping it.

 

[zoltanspawn]

I think 19 is almost always too young for people to get as much out of education as they could.

I disagree with others. Go have fun somewhere.

Continue your education when you have the maturity and experience to really focus on it.

I got my undergraduate degree at age 20 and enjoyed every minute of it, but I would have done things differently with a few more years under my belt.

 

[RaKroma]

What are you studying in college and what are your career goals? If you want to enjoy a comfortable life in a big city, focus on getting a marketable major that could land you decent paying jobs. Then you can move into big cities like LA and NYC and afford to live there happier without skipping meals just to cover rent money with 3 roommates in a small apartment. There is too much emphasis on college years having to be "fun." College education to me is a 4-6 year journey to set yourself for life of possibilities and opportunities.

 

[MrRochesterNY]

There's a lot of good advice in postings 2, 3, and 4. The kind of wild life you want to experience requires spending money. Housing and the cost of living in San Francisco is sky high. I have a gay friend in San Francisco and he loves the life but it is draining him economically. Without an education or some good skills you aren't going to find any work in the cities you mention that pays what you will need.

Don't go from one extreme (boredom in an agricultural milieu) to the other. Find a city and a school that offers both career advancement and gay acceptance, all with moderate living costs . Find the happy medium, that is.

 

[JPGhost]

Ah..the wonder of being 19 and fresh faced.

Idk either I was happy or weeping on that time?

 

[alphacentauri]

Move to SF.