i left the city for a small town. was it a mistake?
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- Опубликовано: 9 фев 2025
- city life vs small town life-where do you really thrive? after living in everything from global megacities like shanghai and london to a town of just 5,000 people, i’ve seen the pros and cons of both. manchester, where i’m filming this, sits somewhere in between-a city full of life, history, and culture, but without the overwhelming scale of a metropolis.
in this video, i break down my thoughts on how cities fuel ambition, culture, and energy but also drain time, money, and mental peace-while small towns offer community, nature, and simplicity but can also feel isolating or slow.
📌 sources referenced in the video:
🔗 www.healthline...
🔗 www.gov.uk/gov...
💬 what’s your experience? do you love the buzz of city life or do you dream of escaping to the countryside? drop a comment!
editing this one was a challenge-managing b-roll on an ipad is not ideal, but here we are! also, today is a big milestone-i’m officially a youtube partner 🎉.
i’m in manchester this week for my degree apprenticeship, so just sharing my thoughts on city vs small town life, since i live in a small town now. next video, i’ll be talking about what it’s like to be a mature student-stay tuned!
as always, let me know your thoughts in the comments! do you prefer city life or small town life?
I’m between two worlds. I work in the city but I love the country. I’m sure no one cares 😆
Congratulations and well edited, even in the city your video transmits calmness 😂 Thanks!
I have to edit all my.videos ona tiny phone screen and I pad sounds luxury haha Great video
@ same here. 😆
It’s a challenge.
I grew up in London and loved it. I now live in Devon. The older I get the more I want to spend time in nature and in smaller communities. I can enjoy being in a big city for short visits but I feel exhausted after a few days
I’m aged 65 and today I went back to my home city Birmingham where I was born, wow what a culture shock to the city I left behind, even the people all different, I felt lost or as though part of me was lost and left in the past. I am liking your channel and have watched a few now.
Yeah ain't it just. Brum and Cov are my nearest cities and at some point a few years ago I just stopped going there. Especially Birmingham where I now feel like I'm the foreigner. Anyway nowadays there are plenty of nice out of town retail parks you can shop at and for eating out the atmosphere is much preferable in a smaller town.
I wholeheartedly agree. I work in London from time to time and I cannot get out of there fast enough. I grew up in Tolkein's English shires, I am literally a hobbit.
haha i call myself a country bumpkin as I live in a village in aylesbury
there’s a possibility I’m a hobbit also then, sucks that we have to wear shoes. What’s stopping you from moving out to the shires? 😆
@VladWorks Because I love it here and in any case my family have a farm here so I'm kind of tied to that. I leave travelling to the big folk 🙂
Got a pickup truck?
Well not me personally as I have a van that I use for my non-farming job. But my dad and my brother have a thing for Nissan Nevaras.
I like to visit big cities but don't think I'd like living in one. I can walk out of my door into nature. Although within an hour radius I have 2 cities and 4 towns so it's the best of both
"a place that offers both excitement and peace", you got it
thanks for the synopsis on Manchester
Congratulations on the success of your channel! 🎉😊 Hope you get income from it now. I avoid cities nowadays, even towns are too busy. Life up a bumpy Cornish farm track is just right. 😎
Just wanted to drop a quick comment to say I really enjoy your videos, and their down-to-earth honest style.
Thank you for the time and effort you put into them. Wishing you and your family well :)
I appreciate that!
I won't prove you wrong. I avoid big cities at all costs. crime, rude people, nothing to see but buildings and concrete.
Fair enough! Cities definitely have their downsides-crime, rude people, and an outrageous price for a pint. But hey, some might enjoy dodging pigeons and paying £5 for a coffee! ?😅
I wish you had mentioned gentrification and homelessness. Homelessness is at an all-time high, yet student accommodation is being built everywhere. Communities are being destroyed as rich people flock to the trendy areas. I live in east London and it’s a struggle here - poverty next to luxury.
People wearing black, black, grey, black - where is the colour? Depressing surroundings reflect the mood and also 'set the mood'. The only colour I saw was the Korean restaurant front, which I think tells you everything. I live in a large market town - and add a dash of colour with a bright scarf, and people look, because it looks unusual.
I have a scarf collection - it’s so dull here.
So what is a colourful Korean store’s front telling you exactly?
I was born in Rural Teesdale and felt trapped in my late teens so moved to Manchester when I was 19 spent 5 years there and loved every single second but I accidentally moved back to Barnard Castle and dont think I will ever want to leave our sleepy town again. I do miss the multi cultural buzz of living in Manchester and part of my heart will always be there but the great think about ylthe Uk is nothing is that far away in reality.
The great thing about living in Teesdale is the great out doors and beauty of nature as well as been a small cominity where everyone knows eachother. But when it comes to cities Manchester has a lot of heart and soul
Depends on the city, some small towns I’ve been have very limited opportunities for good paying jobs
I live in an artsy large town of 45,000 people, it has the perfect balance of culture and slower pace for me. It feels human-scale. Didn’t take long for me to meet lots of people and feel part of the fabric of the place. Wish I had so much wild nature right on my doorstep like you though, that would be fantastic - however it’s a coastal city so there’s always the sea!
Your videos are great.
I wanted to tell you that I have a similar situation to you. I taught English in Japan for 8 years, met and married my wife (who is Thai), and had a son. We are currently living in Thailand and this summer I'm moving back to the UK to start as a trainee secondary English teacher. It will be a tough time as I'm away from my wife and son due to the visa requirements changing in 2024.
Your videos on why you enjoy living in the UK (despite it's flaws) were very refreshing to see compared to the usual doom and gloom I'm met with when I tell people I'm moving home. We're choosing to live in the UK for the same reason you stated: the education system is better than it would be in Asia (specifically Japan and Thailand).
This turned into a long comment, and I'm unsure if you'll read it. Thank you for making these videos, and I wish you and your family all the best!
I hope it works out
that's tough man, wish you luck
This is why I like the south coast life. I live in a city, but by the beach and the New Forest. Not as stressful or expensive as London, but close enough to visit.
I grew up in Manchester. The city centre/downtown is fantastic apart from the Piccadilly Gardens area I must add, but it has a lotnof run down inner city areas and has a lot of poverty, and you can see the wealth divide there getting more stark.
I was born in London, have lived in a semi rural village in Essex and now live near a small town on the edge of the Peak District in Derbyshire. For me I hated the city life in London, way too noisy and to many people. Loved my life in Essex but it’s now a county that is expensive to live. Personal circumstances forced a move to Derbyshire and although I am blessed living with the Peak District on my doorstep I have never really settled here to well over the last 5 years as I thought I would for a number of reasons. I live 5 minutes away from a small town on the tourist trail and although a beautiful place it’s very boring. Transport links are poor, the town is dominated by charity shops, and the traffic is a lot busier compared to where I lived in Essex and you’re landlocked. During the summer months tourists dominate the area with an influx of noisy motorbikes and the employment is poor. At the time of moving up here it was one of the cheaper places to rent and that was the only reason to move to this county. For me personally Essex is the place that has it all, but so expensive rent or buy that I can’t afford to return home being a single person as I don’t earn enough money. Having said that I have friends who live there on higher salaries and they are even struggling now so I stand no chance.
Great city scenes…I enjoyed the tour:) In my 30’s I moved to an island (pop 3000)….Temporarily, before eventually planning a move to a dense city centre. I’m still on the island 36 years later. Trees, mountains, trails ocean. Oops.
I grew up in a small town in Canada of 1000 people, out in the mountains in British Columbia. It was beautiful, but I needed to get out. I've lived in a major city before, and I've settled on a mid-sized city that offers the best of both worlds, city amenities + jobs, and a small town feel at times with some sense of community in places.
At 43 i moved from Hamburg into a 1050 People Village, 90 km away from any major City. Where i live i'm 40 seconds away from the Elbe Meadows. Should have moved much earlier (i think now), but it is, what it is. At least i got the Chance ...
London's awesome but I preferred it 10-15 years ago. It's gone past that aspirational, anything is possible vibe to something more like desperation. I love to visit but even if I could afford a house there, I don't think I'd want to live there.
Yes, the countryside is best. I'd take the Peak District over London every time.
Good luck with the studying, btw. I hope it gets you the kind of job and income you want.
Welcome to Manchester, I live nearby. It is amazing you have focused on the positive aspects on a city rather than highlighting the worse like other RUclipsrs have done For example, the number of drunken homeless people who need the emergency services to be back and forwards in Picadilly, beggars etc. Manchester is favourable located, with easy access to Nature walks. Great video 🎉
I grew up in a rural, yet industrialized area in Europe and always wanted to live in the big city. Never managed the latter and ended up either living in smaller cities or at the fringe of big cities. Now that I have children, there is not much of "me time" anyway, so it does not really matter too much. But thankfully I live very close to London now, so if I want to - and have time for - the big city buzz, I can just hop into the city. Living close to a huge aristocrat-owned park which is beautiful.
I used to work in London and loved cycling through the city - from the train station to work. You can feel the energy, which I loved and which I don't have here in the "suburbs". However, instead of commuting 1 to 1.5 hours per direction, I can now walk or cycle to work in 10 to 30 minutes which is a real advantage.
I also learned to appreciate the natural beauty of the rural village I grew up in with mountains, tall forests, far views etc. that I did not appreciate growing up there. However, as a music fan, I still prefer being close to London, as pretty much every band and DJ will stop by there at some point. In my home region, it would have been a matter of driving 50 or 100 km, if lucky - or maybe even 200 km if unlucky to see some particular band.
So it's matter of choice - it seems to mostly either beautiful nature, but comparatively barren culture (not much music, no nice, big libraries, talks, etc.), or a ton of culture, but not so much in terms of nature. London is somewhat exceptional in that it has a ton of parks and green spaces.
It's also great fun to cycle into London from the outside, to experience the change from rural to city.
Where I live now I find it strikes the right balance. Living where I grew up feels now culturally very isolated in some ways despite the beautiful nature.
I was raised in a small seaside town but have lived in a couple of cities too. I love both and when younger we chose between living in the city and getting out into the countryside regularly or being based in the country and getting a city fix from time to time. We chose the latter and it has been a good choice I think, especially for raising the children. I feel it is important for the children to experience both - the rural life is great but there’s not a lot of diversity or opportunity where we live. The village schools are lovely but do they prepare children for the world outside? We have the most fabulous countryside around us with the sea and moors but our little town, like most, is really struggling. It’s ok and we can get what we need but it’s not exactly buzzing! It’s great to get to London from time to time with its museums, exhibitions, culture, restaurants etc but it’s always wonderful to get that glimpse of the fields and the sea as we near home again!
@Green-Knight22-d8y diversity is coming your way.
Millions more people in the UK.
:smiles: I envy you your adaptability, Viizii :) I am definitely a woodland creature and, in earlier times, I suspect I would be the wild-haired man who lives outside the village in a cave :D I love individual people very deeply but people in general I can do without.
My once small country town home has quadrupled in size since I first moved here and that is leading me to look elsewhere for another peaceful place to live. This happened before in the town of my birth and it is a sadness to experience it happening again and to have to move again even further from my roots. The farm that established my family in that town is now erased by a housing estate and I am likely the last generation of us that could take you to where it was and say that here is where our name is first recorded in history (in the Domesday Book). In a way it feels like we have been disconnected from the past, given that our family farmed there for a literal thousand years.
I am very definitely not a City Boy. I lived in the local city for about a decade, counting my years at uni there but I never loved it like I do woods and fields. I am thinking if we cannot save Britain from the self-inflicted wound of over-crowding via mass immigration ( too many of whom are of unwelcome ideology) then I might have to become a migrant myself. Perhaps to our old ally Portugal or our old enemy Spain. Or maybe my Scottish or Welsh cousins will give me shelter (tho I hear they are having quite a few troubles of their own).
I live in a 1000-person village. Like it.
For me, small town Canada can be just as or more lonely than the big city. There's no ancient historical sites and the connection to the land is not really there unless you're native. Cities are the only places where there's buildings from before 1800. I never was into the rural culture of hunting, fishing, skidooing, hockey, etc., so I never felt like I belonged.
Also the winters suck way more in small towns. I feel like cities give me energy, I love the convenience of everything, and I love the variety of food. I want to live in or near one if I get the option.
You literally couldn't pay me enough money to live in most of Britain's cities.
cool video like the insight
well, it sounds nice for you, but as for me, i'm sick of it. i hate the misery, loneliness and crampedness of small towns. there's no job options and nothing going on here.
You would like the Dakotas.
Horses for courses, of course.
Personally, I'm trying to find the balance...to create the recipe of modern life that suits me. In a city close to good transport links, nature not far, my close friends &fam....seeing what other places and lifestyles are like online from trusted opinions are interesting but if you have roots you want to stay, & make the best of it.
Job opportunities must be very less in small towns. I loooove small towns
@@thankyouthankyou1172 you can start a business- make your own job.
hi semi friend, you mentioned the word resturant, what resturant in manchester are you talking about? ive just been and i like it but think it gets boring after 4 days. i guess my questio is can you recommend some china schools to teach in please.
unless you have a good job, uk is pointlesss
😂 what is a semi friend?? Hmm it depends on your taste, I like the Wazuzhi place that I’m eating in in this video, best ramen for me.
Dude you've just been featured by Legion of Men.
Thanks for letting me know 🫶🏻, didn’t know that channel before
No mistake, cities are cramped, overly expensive and dangerous for adults and kids. So called 'lots of opportunities' in cities but nope, it's usually lots of crappy opportunities and you have to chose ONE. And I studied in Manchester for 3 years in the mid 1990s and lived in London for 29 years, Madrid for 10 and a few north English towns and a small Spanish cities. I prefer to live in a village !
Привет! Люблю канал!
Привет! Спасибо большое ☺️
My bro how you doing
all good this way, how’s you? 😊
Not sure why my comment was deleted. I was just saying that I spent a great 15 years in Bristol, meeting people from all over the world, having unforgettable experiences and hardships too. That city made me who I am, and it's a wonderful place but busy, expensive and sometimes it can really be a struggle
Now I'm in a small village in Scotland and I have the benefits of nature, gentle pace of life, better costs of living
I do miss my city, as I'm sure you do too.. but it'll always be there for us
that's not even an unpopular take
You live 20 miles from your house? I guess you wanted to say work ...
are you INTJ on the MBTI types?
06:16 Do you live in a hotel? On the street? In your car? 🤣
hahahaha good catch! I don't know what I'm saying sometimes. Was meant to be "I work 20 miles from my house"
Not with my vpn🫢
It's not the VPN alone though. Must have an extra ad-on wink wink.