𝑮𝒊𝒓𝒍 𝒚𝒐𝒖’𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒖𝒍𝒔𝒊𝒗𝒆 AF (𝒎𝒚 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑰 𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑪𝒂𝒍𝒊 ) Part One

So who impulsively moves across the country one month after making the decision?

Oh yeah… Tay does. LOL.

No plan at all … I just wanted a new life. A fresh start. A new beginning…

I decided at the end of April and left on June 1st, 2023! Cali, here I come!!!

I had a best friend at the time who lived in LA, so I reached out and asked him,

“What’s in Cali? I’m thinking about coming out there for fashion or just starting over.”

I had never visited California before. He’d been living there for a year already, so I just wanted to know his thoughts.

His reply?

“You would love it, especially for the fashion vibes. It’s a good place to network. I was thinking about getting a two-bedroom if you wanted to get an apartment together or move by yourself, it’s up to you.”

Once he said we could get a place together, there was a little relief cause Cali expensive as hell, y’all. I had so much fear about making this move, and I really didn’t want to live by myself. I was thinking like,

“THANK GOD HE OFFERED!” LOL.

We only had 30 days. He would FaceTime me apartments, and once we agreed on one, the decision was final. There was no turning back.

(And let’s keep in mind yes, he liked men! It was nothing more than friendship before y’all start assuming. LOL.)

Fast forward to the day I left …. I had two bags of luggage and a whole lot of FAITH

I gave away 75% of my wardrobe to one of my girlfriends and gave the rest of my stuff to my sisters. I was so attached to material things at the time, so it was hard to part with some of it… but ya girl was not trying to pay too many checked bag fees. LMAO!

It was such an emotional day. My family was crying …..shit, my moms was bawling! In my 29 years of life, I had never been that far away from family so I was crying too….( I was 29 when I moved)

My sister and brother dropped me off at the airport, and I couldn’t even look back to say goodbye. I was so emotional, y’all….😞😞

It was really the fear of the unknown …not knowing what was behind door #1.

So many thoughts were racing through my head while I walked to the terminal… but once again, there was no turning back.

I had two flights on the way there, and on the second one, I sat next to this woman. We started talking, and she said,

“You are so brave.”

She told me I inspired her to get back into audio engineering. She had even engineered for celebrities one of them was Kanye (I forgot the others she mentioned). We followed each other on Instagram.

I remember the pilot announcing,

“We’ll be landing in about 15 minutes…”

And in that moment… my heart sank. LOL.

Mind you, I had never even visited California and now, my first time was going to be… permanent.

Well, at least I thought it was…

My best friend picked me up from the airport, and we arrived at our place (I have to say ours loosely because it was giving I’m a guest lol).

So this, my friends, was the start of a new chapter…

When I first got there, I was still questioning if I made the right decision… but I couldn’t let that thought linger too long …. because girl, you here now. LOL.

There was this little garden on my street that had two orange butterflies that would always be there when I would go on a walk… or they would fly down the street with me sometimes….

I felt like it was God letting me know,

“You’re going to be alright.”

There was a coffee shop right around the corner that I would walk to and work from home at …..and just admire the scenery

My best friend would take me around and show me different areas of LA.

We lived in West Hollywood, like 8 minutes from Beverly Hills, so I would walk by myself to places just to get familiar with the area.

We would go to parties, clubs, eat out, different events… always vibing with different people all the time. It was fun but besides the fun, it was also very, very Hollywood. LOL. As in, it just felt very fake a lot of the time…

I had another friend that I went to high school with who lived out there as well. He was a videographer for celebrities, so I linked up with him a couple times and he showed me around, too. He would always invite me out places with him so I could meet new people and network….

For some reason, I was so scary. LOL. But we’ll get back to that…

Meanwhile, I was still adjusting not just to the move, but to who I was becoming…..

The Cali pace was different. Everything was fast, expensive, and a little overwhelming some days… but there were small pockets of peace that reminded me why I was there.

That garden on my street with the two orange butterflies? It became my own little secret Garden, my Sanctuary.

I would sit in front of it and remind myself,

“You did this Girlie!. You left. You moved. You took a risk. Don’t forget that.”

And even when the doubt crept in or the homesickness hit so, so hard, those quiet moments reminded me girl, don’t trip.

I don’t know you would think living with your Best Friend would’ve been the best experience…..

But then weird things started to happen that I began to notice…

I thought I was starting a new life…

But I didn’t realize I was walking into a different type of lesson….UGHHHHH

Stay tuned for Part Two….