[sredne]

I grew up in the suburbs also, and hated it. As a kid, you have no freedom until the age of 16 where you have the POSSIBILITY of owning a car/borrowing your parent's car. We had bikes, but the nearest anything was 1-1.5 miles away, and there were very little sidewalks or safe places to bike. Nothing was convenient without a car.

I went to school in a small/medium city (Champaign/Urbana) and loved it. It was the perfect mix of having a city and space for a small suburban life. I lived in a house that was off campus, and was within walking distance to downtown and busing distance to the bars/main campus. It was peaceful and crazy when I wanted it to be.

I now live in Chicago and while I love the convenience of everything(huge advocate of all things public transit), I miss being able to easily just disconnect from urban life.

My next move will probably be somewhere warmer, but it'll probably be in a small/medium sized city for sure.