Lessons Learned from...Moving (Part 2)

My husband and I recently moved from Toronto to Halifax. Reasons for our move can be summed up as follows: we wanted to improve our Quality of Life (QOL). I've always assumed this to be an objective term, that everyone would implicitly know what I meant when I employed it to explain our rationale for moving. Wrong. Discussing our impending move with a bona fide 'big city' girl, she asked what exactly I meant by QOL. She claimed that, to her, QOL meant living in a city with millions of other people. (I don't know how to reconcile this with the fact that her choice complaint concerned her inability to read on the commuter train due to crowds, but whatever.)

This got me thinking as to what QOL really means. I know various brains have attempted to define it (the 'Popsicle Index' is likely my fav), but, to me, it comes down to the following:

1. Climate and weather
2. Pollution, air quality and urban hygiene
3. Convenient access to amenities
4. Availability of pleasure activities
5. Reasonable commute to work
6. Proximity to like-minded people

Of course, built into this paradigm is personality: one person's pleasure and favorable climate is the next person's pain and rain. We all have varying definitions of convenient and reasonable. We all weigh these factors differently. Am I missing anything (...besides the dirty, yet quirky, Toronto streets)?