A place can become smaller after your ambitions become larger.

A place does not shrink; your reach grows past its edges. What felt like the whole world at eighteen can feel like a single street later, and that shift is about your appetite rather than the town’s worth. It is disorienting mostly because the place is unchanged while you are not.

If somewhere is starting to feel tight, resist the urge to make it into a villain. Ask what you want that it cannot provide, in plain terms. Then you can decide clearly whether to go, or to bring the missing thing in.