[taylortrusty]

I felt similar to you while living in Kentucky and turning 30. It felt like all my friends had moved onto the next phase of their life and I wasn't ready for that. I felt unmotivated and stuck, but also felt guilty because I had an income and a job that I felt I should be happy to have.

Moving to NYC completely changed my perspective and my life. Moving also had other impacts: it forced a change of scenery, forced me to make new friends, learn about new parks, learn all new neighborhoods to walk through with no prior memories, I felt inspired with new ideas for the first time in a long time, forced new hobbies and ways of spending time (hello volleyball! hello going to 5 networking events in one night!) and the process of introducing myself to new people over and over made me realize I didn't like what I was doing for work.

I'm not advocating for NYC specifically. I was in Austin last weekend and felt a similar draw there, so if I was 30 and in that stuck spot today that's probably where I'd go to start. There's an energy that dense cities have that forces change, in my experience.

Good luck to you! It can be a very rewarding journey.

[autoconfig]

Completely agree regarding dense cities. Just to add to this, I recently moved to NYC from the west coast at the ripe age of 40. I decided to join a co-working space so I could meet new people (I did not know anyone here). It has been surprisingly easy to meet new friends, something I was worried about when thinking about moving. I'm not an extrovert person by any means and still in the span of 4-5 months I've met enough people that I have no problems finding someone I like to hang out with on a regular basis.