Cities, parallel lives and living on the run.

[the_GoDdEsS]

Do you ever find yourself thinking that in every city you stay in you lead a different life, you are a different you? And the city shapes and changes you forever?

I somehow can’t connect those lives together. Every time I was in Berlin I thought the life here ceased to exist. It’s as if the people I knew here were only a figment of my imagination and I never lived this life. And every time I returned home I felt like Berlin was a dream that never happened and it’s all in my head.

Maybe it’s the environment that has such an impact on you, the people you interact with, the things you do. Maybe by travelling I’m running away from leading just one life, maybe I’m seeking out new perspectives, new worlds and new realities and develop a new me in every city I am.

[Mannen som blev en gris]

I don't feel so.....You seem strange..... :p

[Izie]

Every place I've lived in offered different opportunities, different people, environment, so yes, of course each one of them changed me. That's probably because I'm flexible enoguh to change environments without any particular problem... I quite like it in fact.

However, all of those places connect into one world in my head, to me it's strange to grasp that I'm 1700km away from the place I was born in, because this place feels like home as well... I don't have the feeling of parallel worlds though. Nor the feeling of developing a new "self". I know I'm changing and growing, but I feel like I've already had all of these things in me either way, and they just needed time to surface.

*shrug* travelling is just... A part of my life now. I quite like it, too. I've recently concluded that I don't have one home (as in one place). Currently, I have two, and I hope to have so many more.

My God, this whole post is co... Chaotic :/ My mind is chaotic today :/

[notoriousdoc]

Do you ever find yourself thinking that in every city you stay in you lead a different life, you are a different you? And the city shapes and changes you forever?

I somehow can’t connect those lives together. Every time I was in Berlin I thought the life here ceased to exist. It’s as if the people I knew here were only a figment of my imagination and I never lived this life. And every time I returned home I felt like Berlin was a dream that never happened and it’s all in my head.

Maybe it’s the environment that has such an impact on you, the people you interact with, the things you do. Maybe by travelling I’m running away from leading just one life, maybe I’m seeking out new perspectives, new worlds and new realities and develop a new me in every city I am.

Deep, babe, I can kinda relate to that...

[wheelchairman]

*whispers to Notoriousdoc: I think she likes you, try and score her ;) *

hmm personally I never felt like they were parts of my imagination. But I've noticed more and more the place that I grew up, has become a point of pride for me, even though I have no desire to live there. It's 'personality' is something that I find endlessly charming. While Copenhagen is the city of anonymity for me, which is only a challenge.

[Mota Boy]

Perhaps it's because I've bounced around so often, but I don't identify any particular city with a different persona. I relate different experiences and different parts of my life to my locations around the country, but still feel like myself, just with a different backdrop.

[JoY]

I remember, when I moved to Amsterdam, I really stopped even thinking of life in Arnhem. (the city close to where I grew up) I used to go out there, I used to have friends there, I used to shop there.. everything. Amsterdam became my entire world & nothing else existed. I even sometimes have to remind myself, that my parents also want to see me every once in a while.

when I'm at my parents, Amsterdam doesn't exist for a day. I suddenly become the little village-girl, as I grew up. the second day I'm there, I start getting restless. I start to notice that nothing happens, that life there hasn't changed one bit & that I'm oh so familliar with it. like I've seen it, been there, done that & it can't interest me one second longer than 48 hours. after the second day, I start packing to go back to Amsterdam. even Arnhem & it's nightlife can't entertain me anymore.

when I'm in another city, at a friend, staying over.. their city becomes my world. for just a moment, but still. everything is new to me & everything is yet to discover, just like when I first moved to Amsterdam. it thrills me & makes me think of nothing else. in the beginning I constantly compare their city to Amsterdam (which I call 'my city'. pretty possesive, but nevermind), but after two days I just wander around in amazement.

then after three days, I get bored, remember how much life & colour there's going on in 'my city' & start packing.

[JoY]

the longest I've stayed in a city outside the Netherlands without my parents, by the way, is about three weeks. & almost immediately it became my home. people find it weird I'm so passionate about parts of Canada, Saba, Saint Martin... but they've been my homes. not for long, but just for a little while I felt like home there. *shakes head* awesomeness. I don't have the feeling I can explain it. it was a bit like a parallel world, where nothing else existed. I remember I got a phonecall in Canada, that my grandfather was dying, & I had to slap myself, because at first I couldn't grasp what was going on. grandfather? what grandfather? omg!

Nor the feeling of developing a new "self". I know I'm changing and growing, but I feel like I've already had all of these things in me either way, and they just needed time to surface.


WAH, I can relate to this so very well! I haven't moved so far away from home as you did, but I do know I never develloped a new self. though you could say I'm different now than how I used to be, I just feel like I'm more me than I used to be. I'm growing up & Amsterdam has given me the freedom I needed to let things blossom. as you said, things just surface when you get the opportunity.

chaoticness is also very familliar, hehe. but that's not relevant.

[Jimbob2005]

Growing up in a small, (nearly in some places anyway) run-down town makes you feel amazed at the major cities that you visit. I feel really different stepping into a flashy shopping centre in Nottingham or Leicester. We have none of this in Loughborough though - there has recently been a new square called "The Rushes" but is quite poor compared to the major shopping centres like the Shires.

[JoY]

Growing up in a small, (nearly in some places anyway) run-down town makes you feel amazed at the major cities that you visit. I feel really different stepping into a flashy shopping centre in Nottingham or Leicester. We have none of this in Loughborough though - there has recently been a new square called "The Rushes" but is quite poor compared to the major shopping centres like the Shires.
I know exactly how you feel. I grew up in a fucking tiny shit-hole. a lovely shit-hole, but goddam small nontheless. from that shit-hole I went to Amsterdam. guess how I walked around there the first year.. "omg man, what the fuck!" the fact that there was so much life on the planet only surprised the hell out of me. well, not really, but I'd never experienced it.

[notoriousdoc]

*whispers to Notoriousdoc: I think she likes you, try and score her ;) *

hmm personally I never felt like they were parts of my imagination. But I've noticed more and more the place that I grew up, has become a point of pride for me, even though I have no desire to live there. It's 'personality' is something that I find endlessly charming. While Copenhagen is the city of anonymity for me, which is only a challenge.

*whispers back*

i dont think so, i say babe to most girls. They all hate me anyway :( :(

[Jimbob2005]

I know exactly how you feel. I grew up in a fucking tiny shit-hole. a lovely shit-hole, but goddam small nontheless. from that shit-hole I went to Amsterdam. guess how I walked around there the first year.. "omg man, what the fuck!" the fact that there was so much life on the planet only surprised the hell out of me. well, not really, but I'd never experienced it.
This is the reason why I cannot wait to move out of Loughborough and move to one of the major cities and go to a university there such as Nottingham :D
I can't wait! Although I am only considering Nottingham, I need to confirm that it does I course I like. Another uni that does so is in a city called Hull, which got "worst city" in a survey :(

[the_GoDdEsS]

I know I'm changing and growing, but I feel like I've already had all of these things in me either way, and they just needed time to surface.


That's it. New environment can be stimulating. I discovered new personality aspects and how I act in situations which are completely different from those I was facing here.

I can relate to living in a shit hole. I grew up in a tiny one in the countryside/mountains.

Bella summed it up beautifully! I get that in most cities even if I'm there for a few weeks only. And the feeling's even stronger when I stay there for months.

And then there's the people. They're so different everywhere you go.

[JoY]

Jimbob - I didn't even have a choice.

if you pass your high school exams (the right level, of course), then you can give yourself up for the study medicine & you get basically a lottery-ticket & if you're lucky, you get in. it depends on your average grade how much chance you have to get a 'winning ticket'.

you can say your preferences, of which city you'd like to go to, but the chances you go to the city of your preference is quite tiny. (hell, the chance you get to study medicine at all isn't very big) so you might aswel just end up in the city with the worst education of medicine.

[Jimbob2005]

Luckily I am in for a good chance to do what I want since I am likely to pass my exams with flying colours.

[JoY]

That's it. New environment can be stimulating. I discovered new personality aspects and how I act in situations which are completely different from those I was facing here.

I can relate to living in a shit hole. I grew up in a tiny one in the countryside/mountains.

Bella summed it up beautifully! I get that in most cities even if I'm there for a few weeks only. And the feeling's even stronger when I stay there for months.

And then there's the people. They're so different everywhere you go.
I fully agree.

[Mota Boy]

the longest I've stayed in a city outside the Netherlands without my parents, by the way, is about three weeks. & almost immediately it became my home. people find it weird I'm so passionate about parts of Canada, Saba, Saint Martin... but they've been my homes. not for long, but just for a little while I felt like home there.
That doesn't happen to me. I have to connect with a place for it to feel like home for me. If I can't get plugged in to the vibe, then it just remains a place that I'm passing through. I wasn't in D.C. for a week before it felt like home, and I've never spent more than four days at a time (unless you count time spent in the womb) in New Orleans, but I'm absolutely mad for the place.

However, I've lived in Nashville for two and a half years and I still feel removed from it.

And as for hometowns... I definately grew up in one of the shittiest of holes. It amazes me, though, both how large and small cities can be. As in, I can drive for half an hour on the interstate and still not be out of the suburbs, and yet there are only a few areas of town with nice bars/restaurants/coffeehouses/clubs.

[Izie]

Eh, I can't really relate to living in small places... I'm sort of living in one now, but we're in the city every day, plus the city is like 30 mins away, so... Yeah. And I have the city in my heart baby! I can live outside, but I have to be able to get downtown within 30 mins, or someone dies.

I think I deliberately force myselfs into situations I haven't been in before, just for the hell of it. Every once in a while I do something I'd normally never do. And then it feels so good, I usually keep doing it.

I'm beginning to see how I ended up 1700km away from home... :/

[ASP]

Yes that does happen to me. I never really gave too much of a thought to such things, but in different places it does seem like a different life.It leaves you to wonder whether or not anything really exists, doesn't it? This is a really deep thread and I like that.

[Just a Girl]

i think i understand what you mean but i don't think that, for me, that feeling comes from going to different places. probably because i don't really travel. but sometimes i remember something i've done and it just seems so bizarre that it was actually me who did that. i can't think of any examples, because i suck, but there are times when i remember something i've done as though it was someone else, as though i was a different person.

[Sunny]

I can definitely relate. I'm a different person in New York and a different person in Krakow. AND a different person in my mountain town. And yes, I do get the feeling of the other life being just a dream when I'm somewhere else. It's too weird.

[DirtyMagical]

I could always connect my life in every place I stayed together.=/
Although the places that I haven't visited for a while seem to cease to go on in my head. Specifically Moscow. Feels as if it froze in time. and is waiting for me to come back so that it can go on.

[Inshane]

Even though I really like finding -myself- in various places. After more than a couple of weeks I feel a little homesick. not because of the place but because I miss the lying on my bed, listening to music, my cat etc its so comforting to know what you had at home, the warm feeling it gives you. On the other hand I love making places -my own-. I like making things -my own- in general.