2 Months Out.

Mus

In May of 2014 I thought, “Wow, Whitney, you are 23 years old, you were born, raised, educated in rural New Hampshire for all of those 23 years. Next question: Are you going to start a career, family, a 401(k) in NH for.EV.ver(sandlot voice)?” I decided I absolutely had to get out before I turned into my parents, my grandparents, my friends-parents, my god parents, my dogs parents (see what I did there?) etc. Not that they are bad people, they are some of the greatest people around, but well-traveled? -They are not. I was no longer happy with my stagnant life in New Hampshire. I regularly felt like I was going nowhere, because lets face it - I wasn’t. I was living with my parents and beginning to repay my astronomical student loans(more to come in future posts) I constantly found myself in anti-relationships that consumed my feelings and time and were absolutely never worth all of that.

My hometown, Keene, NH could be easily defined as the epitome of “small pond” and almost anyone that has lived there for 5+ years begins to feel like a big fish in said pond. I needed to get out!! My roots are in NH, but it was time to train my wings to jump the nest. Lucky for me, one of my very best girlfriends had moved to Santa Barbara, California in the summer of 2013,-what a completely different place to try out next and I would not be entirely alone! So I made the decision and pushed the bubble of my own comfort zone to the point of popping. I set a date, July 20th, packed my car, said my goodbyes to not only all the people I had ever known, but everything I had ever known and left. I have officially been in California for 2 months, so it is time to start blogging!

In this pilot post I am going to quickly update you on the past two months, but look out for in-depth posts to fill in the blanks within the coming days. Lets face it , I have a lot to say & not a lot of friends to say it to. :)

1. Cross-Country:
   I was lucky enough to have one of my most-fun and most-patient friends drive cross-country with me! I will definitely blog a lot about our cross country trip, because it was certainly blog-worthy. I loved the snapshot of the United States I was able to experience in this 5 day trek, besides Nebraska - Nebraska sucks.
   
   In all of my moving preparations and goodbyes, I did not shed many tears - until I dropped my friend of at the airport for him to leave me & go back to Boston. (In a perfect world he would just stay and make sure my sanity is always maintained, but apparently I am not the princess I thought I was, womp womp!) Yikes- I bawled all the way from LA to SB- it was finally real, my clothes, my car, and my self were more or less stuck in California. Now it was time to put my big girl panties on and deal with it, and it is still a work in progress

2. New Digs:
   I am currently living with my best gal-pal at her family-friend’s house. He is vegan and a god sent! He’s more or less a fairy god-uncle that not only lets us live with him, but would do anything to help us out. This makes the whole “not having any family within 3,000 miles” thing a lot easier. Casey (bestfriend) and I are saving up for our own apartment with a move in goal of Jan 1st 2015 – more to come people.

3: The Job:
Luck struck once again! One week into being a California resident I thought, “hmm.. maybe I should be proactive about this whole "job” thing.“ With 7 years of waitressing experience and bachelor’s degree in Athletic Training, I set out for the American Dream - a job that forces me to live paycheck to paycheck, but still allows me to party like Miley Cyrus if I damn please! I dusted off my resume and began dropping it off at any & every restaurant that posted on craigslist. I had not interviewed ever actually, since my hometown job was a family friend & I was practically tenured. This made me super-duper anxious and nervous about the entire process. Each time I handed my resume to a manager my palms were sweaty and my voice shaky and why? I do not know- I guess I am just an introvert trapped in an extroverts world trying to make it! Any WHO & much to my surprise, I am actually great at interviewing! I was offered 8 different and varying service industry jobs within 4 days! Granted, nothing was overly glamorous but WOW people wanted me to work for them, what a concept? Long story short- I did not accept any waitressing jobs because…drumroll please… I accepted a fancy-dancy, full time personal assistant job for a local winery proprietor (So much more to come- my job is cool & there is lot to say about it). This move, if anything, has taught me to be a FIRM believer in the serendipitous theory of "being in the right place at the right time” It is NO joke people. I was doing a casual interview at a cafe in a town over from mine when I ran into 1 of the 3 people I had met thus far in California (let me remind you, I had been in cali for under a week at this point) My new friend, we will call her Eliza, was lunching with her boss (get this, he’s my boss now too!) I simply said hi to her and chatted briefly about my job search and BAM I had a job offer I could not say no to. Who would have thought my Athletic Training, Khaki-wearing, Gatorade mixing self would trade all of that glamour in for a 9-5 desk job that includes, but is not limited to: wine label branding, office work, dog sitting, coffee pick-upping, event planning, wine sampling, errand running, etc etc etc! I have recently started waitressing on the weekends for a few extra dolla bills - the struggle is real people. But mainly I sought out this second job because I want/need/yearn to make friends in this new place I call home, and what better place to meet young/fun people? I am currently working 7 days a week but refer back to #2 - we are saving for our own apartment & we are not in NH anymore, CA living is ^ $$$$.

Everything in this post eludes to how lucky I have been since my move. And it is true, I have hit some extreme luck! Somewhere- somehow I have a guardian angel, whom I certainly do not deserve! However, there has been some MAJOR unlucky moments but we will save those for a rainy day, if it EVER rains here! Maybe I will have to indulge my sorrow stories to the public on an overcast day-because nobody can always be perfect, stop showing off California!

** DISCLAIMER: I graduated with a Bachelors of Science (and I honestly am not 100% sure if the apostrophe goes before or after that “s” so as you might have noticed, I left it out! & guess what? I am a grown up and I can do that if I want!) - I took the minimal requirement of english & literature courses and hated every minute of them all. (literally cried throughout the creation of my senior thesis) So I am positive none of my posts will be grammatically correct because that is boring and time consuming. so suck it. **