I hear ya. It is hard to willingly leave your friends and familiars behind. But unless you're already rich, or going to inherit, wages have not and will never keep up to the inflated cost of living in Vancouver.

That might be tolerable in an exciting and cultured city like New York or Tokyo, but all that Vancouver offers is mountains and water and you can find those everywhere in BC. As an actual city, I think its only really notable features are the seawall and all the great restaurants. A good city for LGBTQ culture, and a nice multicultural mix.

Beyond that, meh. Most of the small neighbourhood festivals are dead. Live local music venues are mostly gone. Theatre's still scraping by, I guess. Much of that is a consequence of federal and provincial funding taking a nose dive, while operating costs ballooned. So many non-profits closed up shop.

Something's gotta change in a big way to make it worth it, and I don't see it happening.

Where are you going to school, by the way?