I’ve been noticing more and more lately that I’m getting more and more angry and aggressive and it’s the city that’s doing it.
It’s not Boston in particular, it’s just…living in a big city where people can be rude and thoughtless and exceedingly annoying. I don’t think cities especially attract awful people; the same percentage of awful people live in the city as they do in the country (20%). But 20% of 600,000 people is a metric shitton of people no matter how you look at it and you’re going to be bumping into those people on a regular basis, especially if you work in retail and especially if you take public transportation to get to your retail job.
As a result, I’ve been more surly with people and more liable to get ornery at real and imagined offenses. Some of this change in behavior is necessary. I’ve never been a very forward person and never been very liable to stand up for myself. I was always more likely to take the quiet, passive way out of a conflict. Now, I’m finding myself looking forward to a combative argument. I got to kick someone out of the store the other day and I was thrilled. I hope he comes back so I can do it again.
This is where it starts becoming more of a problematic thing and where I need to start reining myself in the tiniest bit. Still, I’m pleased that I can actually argue with someone as opposed to just grinning and bearing it.
Also, I’ll fight you.
Dylan Charles
dylancharles.net 
It seems like city implants either keep getting worse–more angry etc–or they normalize and adapt.
I don’t remember that happening to me in NY–I just really started to resent the feeling of always being surrounded by people. And the have vs. have nots distinction is much worse in a city.