Where Do All the Young People Go?

After college, most of my friends left to lead lives in different cities. Some chose New York, Milwaukee or Chicago. Some decided to move back home. A handful chose Madison, and I happen to be one of them.

I like Madison, I think it’s a great place to live, but there have been so many times when I’ve just felt like it might be too small. Those big cities that called my friends’ names have one thing that also draws me to them—other young professionals like me, fresh out of school, starting out their careers, and seeking new social networks to replace the ones we all cherished in college.

So where are the rest of us? And how in the world do I find them? In between all the college students and the families, I feel squeezed in the middle somewhere and I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one.

I’ve made a conscious choice recently to try and find other young urban professionals, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out how many there actually are in Madison.

I’m slowly breaking away from the college scene, one I’ve been familiar and comfortable with for a long time. Finding more young people like me might not be the easiest, but I’m sure it can be done, and it’s a journey that I’m more than excited to start.

My Favorite Spot

To me, Madison is a small town. Take away the college and it becomes even smaller. We don’t have big skyscrapers, taxis at our feet, or huge crowds. What we do have are two beautiful lakes, an environment that always makes us feel welcome, and a Terrace that will always be home to thousands of students, alumni and countless others.

One of the hardest things that I’ve had to do since I moved back to Madison was actually MOVE back to Madison. This didn’t involve the physical moving all of my clothes and furniture (for the first time I was actually buying big-people’s furniture but that’s another blog altogether). Instead this involved my mental and emotional connection to a city that I have only known as a college town.

I graduated from UW a semester early in December 2006, and I knew living in Madison as a 22-year-old grownup was going to be difficult. For starters, my parents were no longer supporting me. And while my goal was always to become independent, I found it extremely hard moving out of my childhood home in Minneapolis and back to Madison, where this time most of my friends were graduating and moving on. The only people I knew were the ones who were still in school. Slowly the number of friends I could rely on dwindled. Every semester a new crop of grads would leave town for the next stage in life, either head back home to the parents or off to a big city.

I’ve always been a big-city girl even though I’ve never actually lived in a big city. I’ve only known that every time I visit a big city, all I can do is picture my life there. That’s why I’m surprised that I actually like it here. While I moved to Madison for the sole reason of a job, that job increasingly shows me who this city really is and what brings people back over and over again.

Maybe we’re drawn to our memories associated with this place. Maybe it’s the fact that no matter how old you get, the Memorial Union Terrace is always the best place to feel connected to people. Maybe it’s the fact that East Washington will always have construction on it, no matter how long we live here. Or maybe it’s just the fact that the moment you step outside you know there’s always something that will make you feel like you are home.