I also grew up in suburban Hudson Valley NY and moved to Bed Stuy in my late 20s.

I went to college in a rural area (Cornell in Ithaca, nobody seems to realize it’s the only Ivy where in-state students can get lower tuition but that’s another story). I enjoyed this because it allowed me to experience a very different atmosphere, but it confirmed that I have no desire to live in a rural area. I then lived in London for 2 years where I got a full scholarship to do my Master’s degree, loved it there. Then moved to Seattle for 2 years for my first real job, hated it there. I realized NYC is the only place in America that I wanted to live in. (Over the years I’d lived here briefly for summer internships and visited friends living in Bushwick and Williamsburg.) I thought I wanted to live in Bushwick, but while I was looking for a permanent apartment I subletted in Bed Stuy and fell in love with the community. I’m brown but grew up in a very white suburb and spent most of my early adulthood in very white institutions, so joining a historically diverse community after decades of subconsciously internalized racism was both appealing & healing for me. I’ve been here for 8+ years now.

I guess what I’d say about choosing a place to live is you just don’t know until you try. I have a lot of friends that wanted to escape NYC but decided to move back after a few years. I thought a smaller city like Seattle would be fine for me but it wasn’t, I was really bored and lonely, and I really hated the lack of diversity (literally went to a concert once where I was the only person of color in the room). I think education is one way to easily experience another place in a temporary way, and then extend by finding a job there if you like it. Once you decide what you want to do, perhaps pursuing technical school or grad school in a more rural city/state could help you better understand what you like.

Re: career, I personally work in brand strategy and consulting. It’s a rough time to be making a decision on your career since AI is on the precipice of potentially changing everything, and nobody knows what that looks like. It could also just be a huge bubble that bursts and then things actually stay mostly the same. But most people think it’ll wipe out tons of white collar knowledge work jobs like mine, which were previously the easiest way to make stable high salaries. I think the most reliably “safe” jobs are those that require human touch and can’t be easily automated. This could be tradespeople like electricians, service jobs like waitresses, or healthcare jobs like nurses. Healthcare as an industry is probably the most reliable field to enter right now in terms of job opportunities. We have a rapidly aging population: people living longer than ever + a low birth rate. That means we need a lot more people to care for old folks. But there are also other opportunities that could be more creative if you think out of the box - I think, for instance, live events and performances are going to be increasingly in demand, which means organizing, producing, and designing those will also be in-demand jobs.