Someone once said this about me…
“…as far as i know, her life blows, still lives in the burbs, goes in to toronto to hang at the reverb and buy knick-knacks from silver snail…”
Fact is, I grew up in the suburbs. I tell people that I’m from Toronto because usually people have no idea where Mississauga is. (I’ve tried, I just get blank looks. It’s like saying Lees Summit when it’s so much easier to just say Kansas City.)
Mississauga is pretty much textbook example of a suburb. Take this picture…
Multiply it by like 1000 and then stick a “Welcome to Mississauga” sign at each end of the highway and you have Mississauga.
Now we get to the point of this post.
Fredrik and I have bought a house. This house is also located in the suburbs. I will be… living in the suburbs. It even has a commuter train much like the GO in Toronto except that service is a lot better and it takes way less time. I never thought I’d say this but I’m ok with living in the “burbs”. I must point out that it’s WAY better than living in a small town.
I’ve lived in the city.
When you think of living in the city, the idea is like in the movies and the sitcoms. The apartment is nice, the neighbourhood has no hookers and the cost of rent is not a big deal. But reality is… rent is high, if you don’t have a good paying job, you’ll probably get a broom closet or have to live with roommates, there are hookers across the street from your place and you can’t open the windows because then all the dust from the streets will come rushing in like that freaky sand storm in the Mummy (or is it the Mummy returns?).
Now don’t let that discourage you from wanting to go live in the city. It’s something that definitely has to be experienced for at least a fragment of your lifetime.
There were pros to living in the city but they were small and didn’t happen too often. I was living in a bachelor apartment where I basically cooked in my bedroom. My friend wouldn’t use my toilet because there was no REAL door. I also slept with a bit more than a foot between my nose and the ceiling because I got a loft bed so I could pretend to have a living area. All this luxury cost $600/month which sucked up at least half my pay.
If you’re planning on living in the city in a city like Stockholm with rent control and queuing for apartments, the wait for an available first hand contract is something ridiculous like 15-20 years.
So we’re moving to the suburbs. I am moving back into the suburbs even though I thought I’d never living in a suburb again. Reality is… we can’t even afford to buy a broom closet at the amount we’re paying for a 1000+ sq. ft semi-detached house. Not to mention there we won’t have the Stomperssons living above us. If someone is stomping over our ceiling, then someone probably broke in and we should probably call the police.
