I Regretted My Move From Oregon to Philadelphia. I Missed My Car.

When I moved across the country for a job after spending my entire life in outdoorsy West Coast cities, I didn’t expect the homesickness that would follow.

I spent four years in college in Eugene, Oregon, a medium-sized city situated between the Cascade Mountains and the Oregon Coast, where my life revolved around physical and outdoor activities.

My social circle included surfers, skaters, snowboarders, and mountain bikers, and taking an after-class hike with friends was the norm. Having grown up in San Diego, I’d been used to an outdoor-focused lifestyle for as long as I could remember.

But after graduating, I accepted a job in Philadelphia and moved in the fall of 2025, drawn to its walkability, big-city energy, and the chance for a change of pace and scenery.

I knew there would be differences between life in Eugene and Philadelphia, but I struggled with not having a car, the harsher-than-expected winter weather, and the extra planning it took to get outdoors.

I ultimately moved back to Oregon less than a year later because it was a better match for my lifestyle.

The cold weather wasn’t just uncomfortable — it was painful.

After treading through the rain in Oregon for four years, I thought that adjusting to the Philadelphia winter would be a breeze.

But I found the city’s combination of wind, snow, rain, and humidity hard to adjust to.

On my walk to work, the city’s frigid wind tunnels would leave my face red and numb by the time I reached my desk. Without a car, there was no quick dash from a parking lot.

The swings in Philadelphia’s weather — from snowstorms to thunderstorms — made it difficult to plan my week and even harder to imagine enduring it for years.

I missed the convenience and freedom of having a car.

Philadelphia is a city known for its walkability. It was a huge selling point for me as I decided where I wanted to move to after college. I was tired of driving and wanted to experience the charm of getting lost walking through the big city.

In Philadelphia, I lived in Old City, within walking distance of work and much of downtown.

When walking became necessary, however, that “charm” was a different story. I found my personal bus route was quite unreliable, and I ended up walking more than I expected, which was a pain when I had to haul groceries back home for a mile, twice a week.

When temperatures dropped below freezing, walking around became something I dreaded: I had to pull on four to five layers of clothing just to stay relatively warm, and constantly being surrounded by people on the street became exhausting.

I missed the solitude of my car.

Nature takes more planning when living in a city.

I am an avid runner — I run at least four times a week and have enjoyed scenic trails by beaches and rivers my whole life.

During my first weeks living in Philadelphia, I realized I no longer had the easy, everyday access to shorelines, trailheads, and open space that I’d taken for granted.

Instead, my running routes during the workweek would have to weave through the city itself, full of traffic and pedestrians, or along a loud highway next to the Delaware River.

Philadelphia has parks and trails, but getting to the kind of mountain nature I craved often required setting aside time for a weekend trip and arranging transportation.

I once took about an hour to reach Philadelphia’s Wissahickon Valley Park by bus from Center City, where I ran past waterfalls and beneath tree canopies brimming with fall foliage, but the headache of planning transport made it a tough sell to do again.

It was a big eye-opener about how much I value the easy, convenient access to Oregon’s dense forests and mountain trails.

My social life was more centered on indoor hobbies.

In Oregon, my experience hanging out with friends largely takes place outside: at the beach, on hikes, lying out in parks, or doing something sporty. I had a similarly outdoors-oriented social life growing up in San Diego.

Among the Philadelphia friends and coworkers I met, indoor plans — book clubs, chess clubs, trivia, knitting, or drinks — came up more often.

While they were great and I enjoyed the time with friends, I’m a busybody at heart — I felt myself getting antsy to move. It was costlier, too. A few hours at a bar a few times a week adds up.

The days felt busier and more regimented.

Compared with the slower pace I was used to in Eugene, life in Philadelphia — surrounded by constant honking, ambulance sirens, and people rushing — felt more hurried.

It felt like everyone had their own rigid schedules, and I fell into pretty strict routines myself, both during the workweek and on weekends. The city’s close quarters also made me feel cramped, and I realized I prefer smaller places with more room to spread out.

Now that I’m back in Oregon, I love the open spaces, slower pace, and the ease my car brings to everyday life — especially the freedom to go to the mountains without turning it into a weekend project.