It’s not easy to live and work in a big city, ’cause the competition is so fierce and you can barely balance your job and your life.

在大城市生活并不容易，因?yàn)楦?jìng)爭(zhēng)非常激烈，你幾乎沒(méi)有辦法平衡工作與生活。

It’s not easy to live in a small city, ’cause everyone around you will think they have a say in how you live and you’re basically living your life for others.

在小城市生活也不容易，因?yàn)槟闵磉叺拿總€(gè)人都覺(jué)得他們?cè)谀愕纳钪杏性?huà)語(yǔ)權(quán)，而你基本是在為別人而活。

I live in one of the busiest city in the world and I just had a dinner with a former classmate several days ago.

我住在全球最繁忙的城市之一，幾天前我剛剛和以前的同班同學(xué)吃了飯。

She gave up. And she had decided to go back home.

她放棄了。她決定要回老家。

"Sad." I thought. But I didn’t stop her, because it was her own choice.

“悲哀啊。”我當(dāng)時(shí)想。不過(guò)我沒(méi)有阻止她，因?yàn)檫@是她自己的選擇。

I, on the other hand, have a well paid job. So my life is quite good in my point of view.

而我，有一份薪水不錯(cuò)的工作。所以在我看來(lái)，我的生活還挺好的。

But I, too, had my tough days in the first few years after I came here.

不過(guò)，我曾經(jīng)也一樣，在剛來(lái)這座城市的那幾年也曾過(guò)著艱辛的日子。

And even now, sometimes I got overwhelmed by the workload.

而即使現(xiàn)在，有時(shí)候我也覺(jué)得被工作壓得喘不過(guò)氣來(lái)。

But I conquered them. And they made me stronger.

但我戰(zhàn)勝了它們。而且，它們讓我變得更強(qiáng)了。

I know it’s hard to live in such a big city.

我知道在大城市生活不容易。

And I know it’s also hard to live in a small city like my hometown, just in a different way.

我也知道在一個(gè)像我家鄉(xiāng)一樣的小城市里生活并不容易，只是不容易的方式不同。

But I chose here because it has the very thing that I cherish the most: the freedom to live my own life.

但我選擇了這里，因?yàn)檫@里有我最珍視的東西：過(guò)自己生活的自由。