Less is More: Walking the Line

A move is in my near-ish future and I'm getting excited. OK, maybe I don't know where I'm going, and maybe I don't have a job to go to, but still, I'm excited. This is my first big move away from Oxford (other than a semester and a half at a college in Tennessee) so it's a big deal. And I am really interested in living in a big city, for both the professional and social opportunities.

There are plenty of reasons to live in a city: more places to apply for jobs, more people to hang out with, more stuff to see. But one reason I'm excited about a city is the possibility of going without a car.

I may not actually sell my car if I move. It will depend on the city. But even if I take it, I'm hoping for a place where I can walk and/or take public transportation to most, or all, the places I need to go.

When I was in college, I lived in a couple of places close to town and campus that allowed me to walk around. And thanks to campus parking craziness, I could actually leave my house later on days I was walking than on the days I was driving. I loved walking to class! My route took me through the Oxford Square, down a very pretty street with a mix of old and new houses, and in the spring, beautiful green trees and bright flowers. Since my classes were in the morning so that I could work in the afternoons and evenings, my walks were often in the cool early morning air, with the sun still working its way up in the sky and the streets not yet full of cars.

My walks allowed me to rediscover parts of this town I've lived almost my whole life in. One morning, as I passed the same yard that I passed every day, I realized there was a pony in the yard! This wasn't a farmhouse out in the country. This was a regular house, on a regular street, right in the center of town, with a pony in the yard. I started seeing the pony regularly. It's gone now, and I don't know who lived there, or why they had a pony in the middle of town, but I enjoyed seeing it on my walks.

I love walking to get places. I relish that time to myself to look around, think, and mentally prepare for wherever I'm headed. I like having a closer view of everything that I can't get in my car. I like the slower pace of walking, allowing plenty of time to get to my destination, and not getting the rushed or flustered feeling that traffic can bring.

This is how I want to explore my new city. I want to spend a lot of time walking around, both simply for pleasure and in order to get places. I can't plan on going without a car, at least not yet, since I have no idea where I will live or work or if those places will be close to each other or close to anything else. But maybe I can get there, park my car, and use it sparingly.

Here's hoping that I can discover my new city the way I've rediscovered my current one: one step at a time.