DH and I are in therapy to discuss a big transition in our lives together and as part of it the therapist asked us to separately write down our core values/needs, which has been a good exercise to do. I initially had a list of about 25 things but realised it distilled basically just down to 2: Culture and Community
Under culture the obvious things like access to theatres, museums and galleries, the financial freedom and proximity to be able to visit other countries preferably without getting on a plane, a local walkable environment with good coffee and food and pubs, feeling like I’m “home”, my children growing up with the same or similar cultural identity to me.
For community it’s proximity to my friends and family but also to live somewhere where I can build a great local community, to feel part of something, for a good school for my children, for them to have independence like getting to friends’ and school under their own steam. Again, to feel like I belong.
I’m pretty sure DH is going to come up with the total opposite (lots of space from any other human 😆) but its been interesting to find how it ultimately distilled into essentially just two categories.
Interested to hear what others’ thoughts are, especially if they differ wildly from mine