004 Ignoring all financial considerations, would you rather spend the next 5 years confined to an urban mecca like New York City, or a beautiful, isolated town on the California coast?

This question is tough, because I can't really use process of elimination like for the other ones.

New York City would be great. It's got great food, great shopping, great education, and great cultural diversity. It would mean a new thing every day, and five years of exciting drama. I would have all sorts of friends and do all sorts of fun things with them. I don't think I would be relaxed and idle for very much of my five years.
But New York City would also mean smelly sewers and an abundance of rats. It would mean subways with robbers and alleys with muggers. It would be uptight and restrictive, and people would judge you from every angle. I don't think it would be taken too kindly if you made even just one mistake. Maybe I'm thinking of Gossip Girl too much, bu New York City seems really dangerous, not just physically.

Halfway between writing my description of New York, I think I already made up my mind. Even though it would be boring, small-town life, I would be happiest in a small, isolated town with down-to-earth friends and one grocery store and one coffee shop. I'd be very happy to live in a town like the one in Let it Snow: Three Holiday Romances, by John Green, Lauren Myracle, and Maureen Johnson (which I recommend). Not considering the fact that I would be graduating in those five years, and really great teachers don't really work in small towns, I think that I would have a lot less stress and a good chance to start over and really be immersed in a community. That's why I would choose a wallflower town over a flashy, glamorous town like NYC.

- Quibbles 7/10/14