The Blurgh

Post-graduation life has been on my mind as of late, so I decided to ask some of my friends about what their plans were. Of course, this is a topic we’ve all talked about before, but the conversations are not what I’d classify as “in depth”:

Me, beer in hand: “Hey, what are you going to do after college?”
Friend, beer in each hand: “I don’t know, get a job?”
Me: “Cool.”

When I went into further detail, though, what I found out surprised me. Of all the friends I asked, only two were planning on moving away after they graduated. One of them’s from Senegal, so he’s planning to go back just because his visa will be up and he wants to be with his family. The other has always had dreams of working in the federal government, so she’s planning on going to DC and getting into politics.

I figured that the people from around here were likely to stay, but even the people who came from places like New York and Los Angeles were all planning on staying. When I asked them why, they said that there was just something about Pittsburgh that made them love it. Words like “personality” and “character” kept coming up, but the biggest thing was that they all felt that Pittsburgh was a place that held a bright future for them.

My friend Sophie summed it up best when she said, “Where else in the country can a young person buy an affordable house, get a great job, feel like part of a community, and actually picture herself having a family?”

Amen.