It’s interesting to think about what your life would be like if you had different experiences. What if I didn’t grow up in a small town? What if I grew up in the city, in an apartment rather than a house with a yard, being anonymous to my neighbors?

When my boyfriend and I moved out of the small town that we grew up in, we ended up moving into another small town, a suburb really, of a large metropolis. It was slightly bigger than the town we grew up in, but many people still knew each other and I’d run into the few people I knew there frequently. Once again, we could walk anywhere alone without feeling unsafe, driving wasn’t too frustrating, and it was a little less anonymous.

Since we moved into our new apartment, in a much busier area, the city is bigger yet. It’s busier than the towns I’m used to.

There are some big advantages of being in a more urban area. One of them, is that I gained three hours of my day back, previously wasted commuting. This has allowed me a much better quality of life.

I don’t get up at an unsightly hour anymore to get to work. I don’t sit in gridlock traffic as soon as I leave my suburb, because I can now take back roads. My timeliness won’t be jeopardized by an accident on a bridge, or a stalled semi on a popular highway.

I also love our ability to walk anywhere. We are within walking distance to a movie theater, countless restaurants, and a bowling alley. We are a three second drive to the grocery store, liquor store, and shopping centers.

It’s convenient and saves us a lot of gas money.  I spend $100+ less per month on gas than I did when I was living in the suburbs, and the only reason I’m not saving more is that my school is closer to the suburb than it is to my current city. Once I’m done school, if I stayed at the same job I’m in now, I’ll be saving $200+ per month.

There are some huge downsides to the more urban areas. One is the lack of grass. The noise. The fact that I don’t feel as safe walking down the street by myself at night in my own neighbourhood. The noise (yes, twice. Silence is golden). The prices: everything is more expensive around here, including housing.

You actually have to drive to a park if you want to take the dog for a walk; it’s not just a short jaunt down the street to the fields.

We were debating which is better at work: apartment living or house living. I’m a huge advocate of house living; apartment living has proven to be a horrid experience for me, particularly with noisy neighbours upstairs, and particularly if you have children or pets (I have the latter). I love being able to walk out onto my own yard, know my neighbours, walk in the safety of suburbia.

I love opening the door for my dog and letting her run out in the yard to do her business instead of having to take her on a leash through hallways and security systems.

But would I sacrifice this for a shorter commute? This is something I’ve been struggling with as I’ve considered where my career will take me when I graduate. I want to buy a house, but it’s hard to do that in the area we live in because it’s huge, and if I lived in one suburb, and got a job in the city, that could even mean a two hour drive each way, depending on the suburb.

I know my quality of life will increase substantially when I am out of school, as I’ll no longer have to deal with being in class for 12 hours, and commuting for almost that just to get to school. But is three-four hours of my time commuting worth living in a nicer area?

Would you rather live in the suburbs or closer to an urban center? Why?

The Urban Suburban Argument is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.