Not hearin' it

A friend from Grad School City got in touch with us. He started out in the same field as me, and left with a terminal masters. He now works in industry, and has lived in the same metro area for the past 6 years. He has been one of those lucky people who have managed to live within a few hundred miles of his parents his entire life. Far enough to establish some boundaries, but close enough to visit frequently.

He has decided he wants to leave his industry job, and find another industry job. He has a candidate employers in mind. However, this employer is nearly an order of magnitude further from his current community than he has ever been. This distance is making him hesitate in his decision.

Under any normal human circumstances, I would be very sympathetic to his distress. But right now, all I can think is

1. At least you have some control over when you leave your job, with some certainty of being hired in the same field.
2. Picking the one job you would like to transfer is not considered an act of sheer bravado by your colleagues, because we all know how tight the market it this year.
3. Poor you, leaving friends and family behind. Your wife will probably find a job in your new city, and you don't have to expatriate yourself to keep your family employed.

In short, I don't want to hear it. Needless to say, we didn't raise any of the points with our friend. It gives me pause to think though: when did I become so bitter?

All the same, I could just as easily leave what I am doing here to follow a similar industry path as he has. It's not like the option is closed off to me. But I am CHOOSING not to. At some point, I really need to consider why I'm making that choice.