Growing up, I idolized city life. One of my aunts lived in Manhattan, and my other aunt lived in Back Bay, Boston. I thought it was so cool and glamorous and figured I'd end up in either city someday. As a kid, I wasn't thinking about the fact that they both had two roommates and lived in buildings so old, the elevators still had accordion gates.

Then as a young adult I actually looked at rent prices for anything resembling a "cool" neighborhood in either city. That was a wake-up call. Anyway, I scratched my itch by doing my senior year of college in Boston, then working downtown for two years after that. Now I'd rather live on 40 acres somewhere in Hartford, Tolland, or Litchfield counties.