I'm eventually going to have to leave Boston forever.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

After a series of somewhat difficult conversations with Villager, who is adamant about leaving Boston, and quite likely, New England, we're eventually going to have to figure out where to go. Time frame is basically after getting my BS. Grad school will be elsewhere. Ireland and the United Kingdom are on the table, but it should be noted that those are options because if I'm going to be far from one side of the family, I want to be close to the other. I would prefer to stay west of the Atlantic, east of the Mississippi, and north of the Mason-Dixon. Areas outside of that are negotiable, except for California, and most likely the southwest in general. Place needs biology career opportunities, obviously, but large cities discouraged. And no, I don't want to leave Boston, and never have. So, help me figure out where I would be willing to go.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

She and I can agree on English speaking world, not New York City, nor Australia.

[Junkenstein]

How far are you willing to go?

It sounds like Canada may be on the cards, but South Africa, less so.

[Junkenstein]

Also, why?

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Canada is on the table, south Africa is not. And why to weigh part?

[Junkenstein]

I assume that weigh is an autocorrected which.

I meant why as to the need to leave Boston if you're not particularly keen. Urges to see the world or other? I'm guessing that your reasons here will probably influence where you want to end up. 

[LMNO]

I would prefer to stay west of the Atlantic, east of the Mississippi, and north of the Mason-Dixon. Areas outside of that are negotiable, except for California, and most likely the southwest in general.

So...?

Place needs biology career opportunities, obviously, but large cities discouraged.

You may need to seriously reconsider that one.

[Junkenstein]

Alaska seems promising.

The "biology career opportunities" may not be what you imagined, but if there was ever a place to conduct mad science experiments on people hidden in the wilderness, you couldn't pick a better location.

[Suu]

I would prefer to stay west of the Atlantic, east of the Mississippi, and north of the Mason-Dixon. Areas outside of that are negotiable, except for California, and most likely the southwest in general.

So...?

Place needs biology career opportunities, obviously, but large cities discouraged.

You may need to seriously reconsider that one.

I'm just going to second everything that Alphapance says here.

You apparently want to stay in the Northeast, which means big cities by default, but you don't want to live in one, yet you're not going to find a job in your field outside of one. You need to think more clearly about what you want to do. Are you going to do lab work? Or work at a zoo? All of this matters. But you're not going to find a decent paying biology job outside of teaching in non-urban areas. What you may consider is finding a lesser populated corner of the Megalopolis and commuting to Boston or New York for work, which is what we're planning to do. I'm not getting a good museum job in the boondocks where Jeff wants to live. He knows this, so we're looking for a compromise. You may want to do the same. There's a lot that the Northeast has to offer outside of HOLY FUCK NEW YORK BOSTON PROVIDENCE HARTFORD PEOPLE PEOPLE EVERYWHERE, but all those cities are connected.

Not to mention, our universities here are fucking top notch, dude.

[Suu]

But if you seriously want a good biology job and graduate education, I'm going to tell you flat out to go to the Tampa Bay area. Yes, I know, Florida, but...USF is an amazing school, and you will get internships working at Busch Gardens, Lowry Park, The Big Cat Rescue, Clearwater Marine Aquarium, etc. There's dozens of amazing preserves, and good neighborhoods outside of the main drags. However it's densely populated like Boston, you're looking at 4-5mil people in an area the size of Rhode Island. But the opportunities may overthrow the country living factor. Plus, it's New England South there. You'll meet more people from up North than are actually native.

Then after you finish school, go to the Nature Coast, which is about 100 miles north of the bay. It's 3 counties of protected land and coast. No tourists, just park lands and preserves. I'm talking completely untouched beaches, and the Crystal River area is amazing. They are always looking for rangers and biologists.

[LMNO]

Also: Villager wants to leave New England, I get that's why you're doing this.  So.



Perhaps it could help if we knew why she wants to leave New England.  Because if it's the weather, you're not gonna get anything better in what's essentially the Great Lakes region.

[Mangrove]

Suu and the Alphaman beat me to it. Basically, too many parameters and none of them seem prioritized.

As for Hartford, the only thing biological there is the scum and miasma that infests it. The city is mostly financial jobs - insurance, financial planners etc. Don't know what opportunities there are in biology in other CT towns/cities. Would have to look into that...

[Nephew Twiddleton]

She hates it here for multiple reasons. Which I find baffling, obviously because I don't want to leave. She said college towns are ok, just not large cities. I'm still trying to figure out what the he'll that means.  Because she's ok with Philadelphia. But either way the city thing had wiggle room. I think she's defining city differently than I am. I'm defining it as a large population center she's defining it as I fucking hate Boston. As far as the careers, I was kinda pissed, because I chose biology partially on its employability in Boston.

She described life here as being set on hard mode which, you know, is kinda subjective. I consider frequent droughts, tornados, venomous fauna, etc to be hard mode. Shoveling out your parking space and coming it, not so much. But I'm apparently the only thing keeping her here.

[Junkenstein]

She described life here as being set on hard mode which, you know, is kinda subjective.

Can I suggest that you need to dig a little more into that? Uprooting from a place you like for fuzzy reasons (which may well travel with you if you don't deal with the real/root cause) doesn't sound like a good move.

Considering you've chosen your education based on the employability in the area, it may just be a different part of town you need to move to.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

So, some reasons she's given thus far are she hates the snow, and shoveling, she hates relying on public transportation to get to work, she hates the cost of living, the people here are rude and unfriendly, the weather in general.