Advice on job location and commuting

[Emma]

I graduate from nursing school this December and am looking at jobs for when i graduate. I live in the Quad Cities area and to start, will probably work at the local hospital (Genesis) because transportation is difficult at the moment. However, after i save up, get my own car (financial reasons and difficulties in my family being the reason I don't have one, even though I am 22), and get a few years experience, I've been thinking about getting a job at the University of Iowa, which is about an hour away. The thing is, i don't wanna leave my friends and family, so i considered what it might be like to live here and commute. Do you recommend this or is that a bad idea? Or should i live in a smaller town in between? Advice from anyone living in a big city that communtes would be appreciated, as well as anyone who knows the iowa/illinois side pretty well and recommends a different hospital in that area! I've also looked at areas such as Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, as well as Peoria, IL and Chicago. I'm overall not sure where I wanna go or what specialty i wanna go into, i'm at the point where everything sounds interesting and i'm thinking of all the different oppurtunities. Any advice or suggestions from Midwestern-area nurses and anyone else with advice?

Thanks for listening to me ramble!