@Trianglesun Our stories are creepily similar. I have the same exact situation in my hometown too. Only 1 or 2 friends left, parents have been there for almost 20 years now. But I like my hometown very much. My dark cloud is in Philly.

I too have a great education and I love my career but my personal life leave A LOT to be desired. It seems that I can’t find the right group of friends and and I might as well forget about ever finding a decent guy – my love life has been an absolute disaster in the last 7 years.

I have always, always, always wanted to relocate to the west coast. Even now, as I’m considering up and leaving from Philly to somewhere new, I’m weighing the benefits/losses of going across the country. I believe in signs from the universe, I would I have done the same thing. I’m sorry you’ve been discarded 🙁 I know all about how that feels. It’s the worst. Maybe this needed to happen before you left for somewhere new. Certainly you must have learned something. I’d like to think that these horrible things will mean something in hindsight.

I used to love my job. It was the only thing keeping me together for a long time, really. After my heart was broken (understatement of the century) back in February, I would get there a few hours early and leave a few hours late because I wasn’t sleeping and I didn’t ever want to go home. My job and my coworkers really got me through that horrendously sad time. And they still are getting me through my healing process (and growing process).

Right now I live for the weekend trips to my parents house, being outside/walking/biking, and my job. But my job is also in Philly and the pain of being there is starting to out weigh the joy of the job. I’m not longer learning new things, and work has gotten monotonous.

Now my plan is to come back to my hometown, get a place with a friend and either commute to NYC for work, since it’s only 45 minutes away or get a place near the city. It feels just safe enough because my family will be close, but not too safe – as I’m terrified to make any changes at all.

Yes, there really is not option but to carry on and be okay. I totally agree!