The thing you have to understand is that people have different ways or ideas of measuring the quality of life.

Moving to Dubai almost six years ago, I did not have a plan. Three years later, I woke up and questioned what I was doing with my life and whether it was time to pack up and go. But go where? But I was not unhappy here.

I told a friend about how not having a plan, and a timeline can burn you out over Vietnamese spring rolls last Thursday.

We both like it here, still.

And like every other city, every other place in the world, there are good things, and there are bad things to it. It all depends on how you want to live your life. Some people measure the quality of life by the taste of their espresso while others measure it by the city’s infrastructure and accessibility. It’s all a matter of personal preference, and it doesn’t have to be right or wrong or one way or another.

“The thing is, all this while I’ve been thinking about where I should go next, but maybe I should accept the fact that I want to stay here longer.“, I said.

At the end of the day, just be where you want to be.

Bookshops

I was reading the 2014 issue of Monocle on Quality of Life last night, and I found out that most of the cities I’m attracted to have a thing or two in common. They have the most bookshops in the world, and they are somewhat a stickler for rules.

For the longest time, books have been a way for us to escape. They transform monotonous travel and free time into journeys. They’re always with us, filling up our bags and electronic devices. In essence, they keep us company. We have a companion in a book, and our fondness of them can grow over time – especially if we find ourselves alone. Kenna fell in love with reading at school. “I made myself read as I wanted good grades, but I quickly fell in love with it. Occasionally my mother would have to buy me a book which wasn’t a school-required reading as I cried for them.” Reading as many books as she could, however, wasn’t as easy as she’d hoped it would be. “Libraries were pretty useless in my hometown, and I didn’t get every book I asked for. – read more here

So how do I measure the quality of life?

By the number of bookshops and readers, accessibility to Southeast and East Asian cuisine, continuous improvement effort of the city, closeness to any body of water and fast internet speed.

Do me a favour today and answer, “How do you measure the quality of life?”.