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Health & Fitness

4 Ways Uptown Improved My Well-Being

I was an English Teacher for three years in Japan. I returned to Minnesota with passions, goals, and drive, but met obstacles upon moving back to the suburbs... Here are the obstacles I encountered, and four ways moving here helped overcome them. 

1) There were no Meetups in the suburbs matching my passion, writing. 

(In Uptown!) I now attend three separate writing Meetups: Mid-Town Writer's Group, Get Editing, and Minnesota's Speculative Fiction. I'm often one of the younger attendees, but I attend because I love to write! Meetups are often early in the morning, or late at night; I couldn't have realistically attended from the suburbs.

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2) All young people* in the suburbs were either too young (in high school) or married, and I was bored and lonely. I volunteered, to try to meet people*, but most of the volunteers in my age bracket lived in that shiny, distant city of dreams: Minneapolis. (*Women)

(In Uptown!) I've been dating someone I met at one of the above meetups for about three months, and I'm closer to all my friends -- hanging out is a now a twenty minute round-trip, versus an hour and a half.

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3) ART! The lack of trendy, edgy, and shiny-new art galleries in my suburb was noticed by me; by my soul. I was spending far, far too much time on my Pinterest account.

(In Uptown!) I LOVE Light Grey Art Lab! It's just outside of MCAD (the founder is an Alumni), and they display art that looks like my Pinterest page. Also, the gallery manager and founder were both there, and eager to chat about art and show me around. My soul was happy. There are also other great galleries and shows in Uptown, which weren't accessible to me before.

4) And, finally, all the professional networking events and business meetings I attended while living in the suburbs were in, or near, the city. 

(In Uptown!) Lately, I have been to business meetings at the University of Minnesota, in Wayzata, and everywhere in Uptown, and I drove less than ten minutes to arrive at each. I have more time now. And more gas.


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