Small cities are truly where it's at

You can really have it all in small cities. The job market is decent enough for my given field (which isn't tech or finance); homes are somewhat affordable still; you get a good amount of modern city amenities like good restaurants and a variety of different grocery stores; if you're lucky you'll have a little theatre and can have a date night out on the town and see a play or an interesting talk; my commute to work is a five minute drive up a hill; all my friends and I live in the same quiet neighbourhood that's near a bike path that leads to the downtown area; there are a few staple pubs that you'll see all your friends at on any given night; there's a lively local music scene; and in my case, I'm no more than a 5 minute drive to pristine nature where I fly fish, swim, mountain bike, gravel bike, hike/camp and hunt.

Yeah I don't get to see my favourite bands play whenever I want, but at most I'm a four hour drive away from being able to do that - and the drive is actually nice and enjoyable. Add on a train ride and I can access basically anywhere I want to. You learn to deal with what you have and in my case I feel like I've got a lot.

I've lived in major cities and always felt super claustrophobic. It's probably because I grew up in a very rural environment where I could escape to nature whenever I wanted to. But obviously living in super rural areas as a young professional isn't ideal. So small cities are the best.