[nodelessness]

I would go for the job.

Hate to assume too much about your cultural background but my thinking is: unless there is a concrete commitment between you and your SO in the form of marriage, you should not be tied down to your current location no matter how good of a person they are and how well they treat you etc. when something like this comes up.

I have relocated to different cities during my career - 3 times to be exact. I have recently relocated to a new country in a another continent. You're right there is some amount of churn and stress involved in the process of the change. But that is only for the first 3-4 months after which you settle into a level of comfort.

However, every time I made the move I have looked back and felt that making the move, enduring the stress of change, was totally worth in the end in terms of the vast improvements in opportunities, personal development, financial gains and the many many new avenues that opens up and the new people that I met were totally worth the short term 'pain'.

[stbtrax]

That's a pretty conservative view on relationships. There is a whole spectrum of commitment that doesn't involve getting imaginary figures or the government involved.

[nodelessness]

I agree that you don't have to get imaginary beings involved.

However, I disagree that a vague verbal or non-verbal understanding is sufficient to make one's commitment to the other concrete. It is not enough to inspire confidence in anyone. If your commitment is really that concrete and real what is keeping you from registering it with the government? It shouldn't really bother you - a mere formality. From making it widely known to everyone around you that yes, you are committed to me. Surely if I mean that much to you, and you are as committed as you say you are, this shouldn't be a problem.

[cm2012]

Can you imagine someone not being replaceable to you?

[nodelessness]

The whole concept that "that special someone" is nonsense. It is a fairytale concept that one grows out of once they leave early adulthood. Make no mistake - you are not special. You're not special. No one is. It is very likely that, for both you and your SO, there is probably a person out there who you would be even more happy if you only chanced up on meeting them.

Who we end up with is mostly a function of chance. No one is replaceable.

[jklein11]

Call me a millennial but this is an extremely odd view of the world to me.

Everyone is unique. Everyone has had a different set of experiences that brought them to where they are today.

Relationships are also unique in this way. They are a shared set of experiences you have had with another. Each set of shared experiences is unqiue.

In the case of the OP, only he and his current SO will have lived through making this decision with each other. The strength of their relationship going forward will be in part because of this shared experience.

Are you arguing that it is possible that the SO would be happier if they were making this decision with the other person? I'm sure that this could be theoretically true, but it seems somewhat irrelevant.

[cm2012]

You choose to make someone irreplaceable by opening yourselves up to eachother and risking the pain of loss.