You're considering relocation like so many people do. You've got a lot of research to do on ideal cities, states, provinces, countries, and what have you. You're busy understanding the economics of areas, job opportunities, cultural benefits . . . and then as you do your research you find a very hard truth about your plans to move elsewhere.
Relocation may well take you to a place in the world that will outright kill you.
Those wonderful cities, interesting states, fantastic towns, and ideal countries provide any number of ways to put you six feet under. Consider just a few desirable locations for progeeks, just based on my own findings, friends, and family:
- Silicon Valley – Plenty of technology, and of course while companies make groundbreaking discoveries, you get groundbreaking earthquakes.
- Florida – Sun, fun, Disney, and hurricanes ramming themselves into the state several times a year.
- Boston – High culture, high tech, high fun, and winters that turn the city into a deep freeze of bone-chilling cold and street-covering snow.
- Arizona – Surprisingly low prices, interesting opportunities, and of course hideous heat.
- Toronto – Multi-cultural, incredible food, growing tech sector, and of course, Canadian winters.
I could go on, but if you're doing relocation research, you can probably go on with all sorts of horror stories you've dug up in your studies. Any open-minded approach to looking into a place to move to will tell you how that area can kill you. That kind of knowledge can create panic, especially if it's a "kill you" that you're not used to.
Here's the solution: Live with it.
Anywhere you move is going to expose you to something that will kill you, possibly in a spectacular, gruesome, or at least news-worthy way. Do not panic over this, this is normal. Instead of panicking, you want to find out how people in your ideal relocation locations deal with all the stuff that can kill them.
Remember, people are living in your ideal new home states, cities, and countries. They've lived there for centuries if not thousands of years. They've survived and prospered. This means they've found some way to survive all the deadly weather, creatures, roadways, pollution, etc. that's there.
If people are there, you can survive.
Make "what can kill me and how can I survive" part of your studies when you decide it's time to find a new place to live. You have to accept it and work with it, just like any other challenge you could face in a new location. Worrying doesn't do anything.
For that matter, think for a moment all the ways your current location can do you in. Think over the weather, the accidents, the pollution, the disasters, the crime rates, and more. Think about all the reasons you've survived wherever you live.
Though if you think too hard, you may panic yourself so much you try to get out too fast . . .
– Steven Savage