Do you live where you want to live?

Off the "Where do SportsJournalists.commers live" thread: Do you live someplace you like living? Do you plan to stay?
One of my biggest frustrations with this business is that you often have to choose between a good job and living where you want. So many of us spend our 20s bouncing around small and mid-size markets in the hopes of landing at a metro, and even if we get there it may be halfway across the country from wherever it is we really want to be. It's even worse these days with the job market being what it is. A side effect of this is a lot of journalists who aren't particularly connected to the communities they cover, and/or who don't plan on staying there long. That hurts our coverage at some level, I think.
Personally, I've spent much of the last six years wishing I were elsewhere, and while I recently landed in a pretty good place (I'd answer Yes to the question above), it's a long way from home. I'll probably feel the strings pulling me back before too long.

 

Eight years after I started I'm in exactly the type of place I wanted to be. Warm. Near the ocean. Aggressive newspaper. The papers I had before that all had some of those aspects but not all of them. That's why you work hard and pay your dues.

 

I haven't been on the current job long enough to make a real assessment, but the last job was exactly where I wanted to be. The town was incredible, with a strong fitness community and great arts and entertainment. Just the job sucked ass. The one before that was a great job in a good (not great) town, and I'm still trying to figure out why I ever left.

This is the hardest thing to explain to anyone outside the business. You have to go where you find work whereas employees in just about any other field can find work wherever they want. As such I have no concept of "home," just a bunch of places I've stopped for a couple years. I want stability in the worst way but I'm not about to set down roots in a bad situation if I don't see it improving.

 

I've met so many people in this business who spend half their careers trying to get back to wherever they call home.

That's why I don't really want to leave, particularly not after four jobs in 10 years right in this same area. It's made searching for a new job very difficult. Perhaps I'll have to learn to revise my expectations... or finally get some guts and start packing.

 

I'm in my third stop, from a mid-sized, to a small market, to a metro (all in different states), and I'm finally in a town I like and can see living and working in for a long while. For that, I feel very fortunate.

My first stop was in my home town, and I wanted nothing more than to leave -- the tired environment, the family, etc. My second was a decent, but very shitty at times, at a sub-par, small daily in an extremely introverted town, where I was viewed as an outsider for two years. Aside from my small selection of friends, I found it very difficult to grab a grasp on the community -- so I see STLIrish's point.

Like ServeItUp, I've only been at my new joint for a short time, but I can tell the city and the environment is for me.

 

I like where I lived much better than where I live now.
But being with who I'm with is demonstrably better than being alone where I was.

 

Awwwwwww...

My answer: Not really. Fine town, fine people, my parents like it....I'm not sure I'll ever really be comfortable.

 

Write-brained: Sounds like you're in Florida.....

 

I try to find the positives about each place we locate to -- and this one has a lot of positives -- but I'll always be in that searching-for-the-perfect-spot mode. Must be the gypsy lifestyle growing up.

 

i've been truly blessed. 29 years in the biz, never had to leave my home area. i know how fortunate that makes me. 8)

 

You and me both, Shockey.. but mine is 38 years

 

I've been trying to get back to the Chicago area since I left. Right now, there's only a handful of jobs that would make me leave my current gig in the next few years, and four of the five are in the Chicago area. Other than that, I love my current city (and it's also very nice to be living in a well-populated area again after almost two years in the sticks).