Choosing Home

When you live in any city for a long time, you become accustomed to its ins and outs. The good and the bad. This is not inherently a bad thing. But with prolonged exposure and absence of experiences outside of your city, you lose sight on what you might be missing out on.

I've lived in Toronto for over a decade. I've grown accustomed to its:

  • Endless choices of ethnic foods,
  • Quiet winters and breezy summers,
  • Close proximity to the US,
  • Beautiful natural parks,
  • Beautiful mix of urbanization and green spots

But I've also grown accustomed to its dark sides:

  • The 12hr+ wait times in the emergency room
  • The weeks long waits to see a medical specialist
  • The drug addict spazzing and touching himself on public transit
  • Shit and piss all over the downtown streets
  • The omnipresent stench of marijuana
  • The rising taxes, cost of living, and stagnant wages
  • The weakening curriculum in public schools
  • The growing gun and knife violence in public spaces
  • The flood of migrants who don't care to assimilate

Growing up here, I believed these inconveniences were an inevitable sacrifice that came with living in any big city. In fact, Toronto was the only big city I've properly lived in during meaningful years of age for a non-trivial amount of time. On the news and Internet, I saw that every big city in North America had similar problems. I internalized the idea that I just had to live with it.

But after returning to live in Korea for a bit, I realized that most of these inconveniences are a choice, and not a necessary tradeoff for an urban life.

  • Society can choose to keep the streets clean of filth.
  • Society can choose to make public systems strong and reliable.
  • Society can choose to reject poisonous ideas.

Society can do ALL these things and still provide:

  • Robust, fast, affordable healthcare
  • Clean, fast, developed public transit network
  • Clean and safe streets
  • A strong education system
  • A strong sense of national and cultural identity

As an adult, you more likely than not have leeway on where you can call home. While nowhere is "perfect", there's a good chance that any inconvenience you've become hardened to is a choice in another place.

Where you live in the future doesn't have to be where you've lived the longest. You don't have to keep tolerating the behaviours and problems that irk you.

Choose a good place to call home.