I’ve moved back to Berlin five times in three years now. For some reason, I can never find the perfect place. My theory on this comes from my childhood: I’ve never lived in a city, so I’m not used to it. I feel like the place you have grown up molds you in a way so that you can’t make it in a bigger place, in a bigger city with millions of people. I can’t say Berlin is a hideous place – I really have a nice time there. Berlin has its own feeling, and I love to go through the city constantly. You are able to get to know a lot of different people, and your horizons can grow in extreme ways. The city offers everything you could possibly need. Well, except the chance to find solitude.

This made me move to Potsdam a month ago. It’s a little town east of Berlin where I usually study.

What a great decision! Most of my friends live around the corner, I’m close to the water, and the journey to my university isn’t one and a half hours long anymore. The sun shines through my window now, and I can go to calm places whenever I want to. In addition, Berlin is accesible in fifty-four minutes – what else could I want? My life has changed so much for the better. There is a lot more for me to do in my free time. Soon I’ll get my own canoe, and then I can paddle out on the lakes here.

Everybody must find their own reasons to make their home in a certain place, but I do think that many people live in popular cities simply because they can throw the name around, without thinking about how they really want to live.