Why Living in a Big City in Your 20s Can Transform Your Life and Career

As I approach the end of my 20s, the world is undergoing a significant transformation. The global pandemic has redefined how we work, live, and interact with each other. More importantly, it's reshaping how we organize ourselves. This experience has made me realize the importance of living in a big city during your 20s.

The Contrast: From Metropolis to Ghost Town

In 2020, I witnessed London, one of the world's largest metropolises, transform from its signature fast-paced atmosphere to a ghost-town-like feel in just a few days. This stark contrast, compared to life in a small city, made me internalise how important it was for me- a young person in my 20s- to spend time living in a (big) city.

Most likely, this hypothesis is not going to be future-proof. And that's the reason I wanted to jot down a couple of reasons you can consider when deciding whether to move or not to move. (Considering you don’t come from an international hub.) Or for those that just want to experience life differently.

1. Expanded Career Opportunities

This might sound like the obvious one, but if you're from a small country, there's a high chance you might not even know about certain industries, not to mention career choices. Because the options are not particularly broad on a smaller scale, it's quite essential to get out there as soon as possible. There might be specialties in specialties within many different fields... Try to experience as big of a scale as you can. This will help you better crystallize your aspirations.

Traveling is not living

To spend a week or two in a different country is not the same as when you're living day-to-day life. You'll have to solve a whole set of challenges, set up routines, learn to navigate life and day-to-day differently. It might be worth the effort or not at all. You won't find out until you stay long enough.

Walks of life

International hubs like London, New York, Seoul, West Coast offer international diaspora you likely won't be able to meet in other cities. At least not at such a scale. What I mean by this is the convenience of meeting people from all around the world. If you're keen to have a really global network, living in such a hub is the right strategy.

**Being on the cutting edge**

International hubs are places where the innovation happens first. You’re always a couple of steps ahead.

International hubs are places where innovation happens first. The concentration of resources, the world's top talent, environment, and everything that comes with it creates a unique space for new products, services, solutions. First, they emerge in those cities and then distribute throughout the world. You're always several steps ahead of the rest of the world. Eg. technology innovation happening in the Bay area, LA- entertainment, wellness trends, New York and London - fashion and fashion tech, retail tech, London - new fintech...

If you can, take the opportunity and experience it yourself.

Culture, products, services

Following up on the previous point, the options to choose from are endless in almost every aspect of life. Want to experience Sri Lanka-kitchen? It’s probably 20 minutes uber drive away. See your favourite actor in a theatre? See the performance of your favourite music band? The only thing to worry about is booking the ticket in advance. You want to buy the new cosmetic launch? Go buy it from where the global launch actually happens or order it online to receive it tomorrow. It’s also going to be cheaper than in other countries because the competition and market size is much bigger.

Life admin, finances and resilience

With all the convenience on one side, there’s a certain amount of hardship on the other side. Because the city is competitive in every area, finding a place to live, finding a job or even simple things like doing laundry will take much more effort and resources from your side. A lot of time, it’s an unreasonable amount of energy. You’ll have to invest A LOT of it first. And by first I mean a year or a couple of years before experiencing the benefits. The personal growth is much faster. But - if you’ll keep up the resilience and you can make it there, everything else (anywhere) is going to be easier. Less competition, fewer resources inevitably mean an easier life.

Let’s see what the future holds for big cities - it looks like their significance is not going to be lost completely. Our online personas are more important than ever. One of the key things I’m amazed by is the amount of resources online. Let’s take the advantage of valuable information at our fingertips to learn and better navigate the future. I’m looking forward to it!

Liv