When you're young and strong & hungry (& lonely?), the Big Apple offers a lot of opportunities to meet those needs. After you've honed your skills (& maybe piled up some cash?) you can always throttle-back and head out into the country to enjoy your assets a bit. That seems to be how lots of folks plan & then do it. I can't imagine being any older than I already am and actually living there, trying to maintain that frenetic pace the place seems to run at. Very high-energy, which can be fun when you're a youngster. Definitely not for old dogs.