Taken to task

I have been taken to task by my friend Jessica for unfairly hating the city of Philly. She thinks that I am currently refusing to see any of the positives and only concentrating on the negatives. She may be right, but hear me out. There are many aspects of this city that I enjoy a lot. Unfortunately as of late, perhaps related to my stressed state of mind and my growing frustration being a resident, I have chosen to ignore those aspects and only see the parts I don't enjoy.

I don't hate Philly. I have enjoyed most of my time here. I will most certainly return here to visit in the future. If given another option, I would probably not choose to live here permanently, but that has more to do with me than the city. It is actually very interesting how things work out. The entire time that I was growing up I couldn't wait to get out of my small town. I wanted to live in a large bustling city where there was always tons of stuff happening. I was going to have this incredibly exciting full and fast pace life.

I moved to my first big city in college, and had a blast. However, by the time I finished medical school - I needed a rest. I am absolutely positive that I could not have survived a surgical training program in a big city. Perhaps it is related to the way that I grew up, but the fast pace life takes a lot out of me. Turns out as much as I hate to admit it, my soul occasionally craves a slower pace to life. I like the stillness of sitting on a front porch watching the trees blow. I never would have believed that growing up, but it is what it is.

Don't get me wrong, I am by no means a country girl. However, I would love a nice small to middle size city with friendly neighbors and front porches.