If you've ever moved away from a city you loved, I'm sure you can relate to how awkward and sad it can be to say goodbye. I recently left Columbus after moving there post-college — and I'm sorry that I didn't know about the Leaving Everywhere tool before I left. I wanted to find a fun, clever way to say adios, and, well... that definitely would have been it. Good to know for next time, right?
Leaving Everywhere randomly generates essays in the format "Why I Am Leaving [City]" using real data from the 2013 U.S. Census — so, based on factors like population and average income, it gives you a fact-based justification to show why you're leaving that place and moving onto the next. While there are obviously more things that come into play than numbers, it helps paint a reasoned case for leaving — which, in turn, might get all those people who just can't understand why you'd ever want to go off your back.
The tool was created by Internet artist Darius Kazemi, who runs a creative cooperative in Portland, Oregon and creates all sorts of interesting bots and generators as a part of his work. To use it, all you have to do is go to the website — one you arrive, it will automatically generate one of these fun letters for you. Don't like the one you got? Click "Generate Another" to come up with a different one. Here's a clip of a letter I generated that's entitled "Why I'm Leaving San Diego, California":
Why I'm leaving San Diego, California
I've lived in San Diego my whole life, but it's finally time to say goodbye. It pains me to say this, but Aurora, Illinois is going to be my new home.
According to the 2013 American Community Survey conducted by the US Census Bureau, 4.02 percent of folks here commute to work by public transit. And it turns out that there are 17,019 men who work in business and financial operations in this town. This was cool when I was 20, but I'm trying to start a family now! Also it turns out that we have 90,499 Hispanic-designated people living in poverty here. Can you believe it?
You can also learn a lot about a particular city from these facts. Using San Diego for instance, it seems that almost everyone drives and there's a large socio-economic gap — information that could be quite useful in learning what kind of city you'd like to live in.
So in that spirit, here are four other clever ways you can use Leaving Everywhere, both for work and play:
1. To Help Plan Your Next Vacation
If you're looking to go somewhere new for your next trip, try using Leaving Everywhere to make it interesting. You can use the facts and figures you find to lead you to your decision, or if you're feeling really daring, you could decide to go to whatever city it generates first.
2. To Trick Your Loved Ones
You could always post one of these letters on Facebook and trick everyone into thinking that you're moving. Sometimes we all need a good practical joke to bring some laughs into our lives!
3. To Soak Up Knowlege
If you love to learn for the sake of it, you could easily use Leaving Everywhere as a sort of geography textbook — or, perhaps more accurately, like the digital equivalent of spinning a globe, putting your finger down at random, and running off to the library to learn all about the place your finger landed on. See how much of the data you can fit into your brain and use in your everyday life.
4. To Move (For Real)
Maybe using Leaving Everywhere will actually inspire you to move. If you've been having the urge to go to a new city lately, this little tool might help to provide you with some sort of guidance. Or maybe you've just gone through a breakup, or graduated, or had some other major life change that makes you think it might be time to move on; either way, Leaving Everywhere could be the push you need to really make a welcome change.
Images: cambodia4kidsorg/Flickr; Giphy (4)
