Hey there, you may have noticed that I live in Los Angeles now, and that I seem to be staying put instead of traveling 24/7. Allow me to explain.

Remember when I had that quarter life crisis in Thailand? Same. I had traveled to so many amazing places in the past two years, but I was ready to settle down.

The cause of my anxiety was the usual (and probably common) cause—feeling like I didn’t have a “plan” or a “goal” in mind in terms of my life (that goes for career, relationships, etc.). On top of that was the concern that even if I did figure out a plan, I would be stressed about money.

I’m all about being transparent with money, so let’s be straight up. As a freelancer I netted about $38k last year. It was more than I made at my last full-time media job, but still not enough for me to live in a big city without constantly worrying about money.

I knew that to eventually make more money (and thus give myself the time and space to figure out all the other shit in my life), I would need to probably do one of two things—build out my freelance business or get a full-time job.

The idea of building out my freelance business didn’t really appeal to me. I don’t like hiring or managing people, and I’m bad at delegating work (I’m queen of “if I want something done right I’ll do it myself”). Of course, I could just increase my rates, which I had steadily been doing, but that would still take time and as a writer probably would hit a glass ceiling at some point. Although the digital consulting and social media work I was doing was more lucrative, I didn’t see myself being someone who would go out and get clients myself. I’d been lucky that in the past year or two people had simply come to me through referrals or networking.

I originally wanted to freelance so that I could work on personal projects, like my book. Or even leisure activities that I didn’t monetize, like my art, but as a freelancer I felt like I was always just following the next (perpetually late) paycheck and never wanted to relax because I always wanted to be productive (I’m like this even when not freelancing, so you can imagine how bad I am when I’m trying to hit a monthly revenue goal).

I’m graduating from my MBA program next weekend, so I knew if I was ever going to apply to jobs again, this would be a good time to do it. I also knew that it was going to be difficult for me to leave my rent-free, familiar living situation without a “reason” to move across the country (I knew I most likely wanted to go to LA).

So, I started lightly applying to a few jobs a week, and when I was in the Cayman Islands with my family, I booked an interview with a skincare company based in LA. They offered me a position just hours after the phone interview, which I found a little questionable tbh, but the salary was higher than I expected (I’m making $65k now) and I figured if it sucked, I’d just quit and continue freelancing. At least it would get to me to LA.

The “catch” was that they needed me to start on April 1st, and by the time I got back from the Cayman Islands, I’d have about a week to pack and get my shit together before my first day.

But I was no stranger to last-minute trips and expert packing at this point, so I packed up two big suitcases and one carry-on’s worth of clothes and shoes, booked a one way ticket, and went. It didn’t really feel real, it just felt like I was going on another vacation.

The place I had planned on staying was a friend’s roommate’s empty room (he was an actor away for the month). I knew it was going to be a bro pad, but I figured I could stick it out for a week or two while I found something better. Let’s just say that, after having to break into the room with a knife and walking in on people partying in my room the night after, I did not want to stick it out for a week or two. I spent my first two days in LA visiting apartment sublets (that I found through Facebook, which is a great resource), and signed a sublease for a cute studio by Runyon Canyon (and by my new office) on Sunday evening, just in time for work on Monday.

Side note, for those who have questions about how to secure an apartment across the country before you move there—you really can’t. If you try to, you’ll probably get scammed. You should never send money before you see a place yourself (and in my opinion, have the keys in your hand when it comes to subletting). I would recommend booking an Airbnb for your first few weeks while you look for places. Because I had already done some work on Facebook and “saved” the spots I was interested in, once I got to LA it was easy to just go through and schedule times to see the places I liked.

Although the last month has been pretty crazy and I still am working on finding an apartment to sign a lease on, a car to buy, and more—I’m so, so happy I finally made the move to LA. I feel really at home here, the weather is beautiful, there are vegan options galore, and the work-life culture is way better than it was in NYC.

I think I will probably turn this into a separate post because I don’t want this one to be too long, but transitioning from freelance life to a 9-5 has been strange in tons of ways as well. Aside from the obvious wardrobe struggles I’ve been having (that you’ve probably seen on my Instagram stories), there is also the weird feeling of getting home from work at 6 and feeling like the world is your oyster—which can be beautiful but also scary as someone who was filling the void with work for so long. After taking the job, I also felt like I was giving up part of my identity by taking a full-time job that wasn’t a journalism job (my official title at my new job is Copywriter, although I end up helping out with a lot of marketing and social media stuff as well). Weirdly (or maybe not so weirdly) I feel like I have way more freetime now than I did when I was freelancing, but it definitely still pangs me every time someone asks me to do something during the week and I have to tell them I’m not free until after 5.

Anyway, I’m probably going to make another post on what you should know before moving to LA, so feel free to drop questions below or DM me on Instagram. I just wanted to post a lil’ explainer because a lot of people have been asking me what’s going on and if I moved to LA “for good.” And while I cannot answer anything like that because I have commitment problems, I will be in LA (and at my current job) for the foreseeable future and I’m so happy about it!

Photo by James Law