cheers to one year in SF!
There have been a lot of U-Hauls in my life up to this point. I've lived in California, Oklahoma, Arizona, and Texas... three of those moves happened after college. My most recent move was back to California from Texas. Moving to SF was maybe one of the easiest ones I've ever made for a few reasons.
First, I already kind of knew San Francisco. I grew up about 2 hours from here until I was 10 years old. Besides that, both of my parents met and went to college here. Growing up, my dad commuted to teach a class at the dental school in the city for many years. For me, that meant lots of drives that we got to tag a long on, where my mom would walk us around the city and show us their old stomping grounds. Being a little kid, the main thing I remember from those trips was going into the multiple story FAO Schwartz store and being in awe of all of the toys.
ANYWAY, this isn't a throwback to my childhood.
Second, Jared. Back in March of 2015, I met Jared at one of my best friend's weddings in Oklahoma. We were both in the wedding party, locked eyes at the rehearsal dinner, fell in love, yadda yadda yadda. All of that was lovely until I found out he lived in San Francisco.
...buzzkill.
We exchanged numbers without expectations and began texting. The texts turned to phone calls, the phone calls turned to facetime calls... and before we knew it, we had been dating a year, long-distance. Let me tell you, long distance is the worst. We made it work with lots of trips back and forth, but I recommend dating someone who lives close. Like in your neighborhood. Date someone within walking distance of your house. Anyway, he didn't want to move to Texas, and I didn't really want to stay there, so the ultimate decision was that I would move to SF. The problem was that my lease was up on my apartment within the next month, and there was no way that I was going to be able to find a job AND move in that short amount of time. SO, I found a cheap (kind of dingy) little apartment in Dallas that would give me a 6 month lease, and we made those 6 months my timeline to get to the City. The worst part of that, was that I had to move all of my things there, just to move them again a few months later.
Now, the actual move...
After 5 months, I secured a job that I was happy with, and the ball started to roll. I sold all of my furniture and donated a lot of my kitchen items. I didn't want to bring much, because I wasn't sure what my living situation was going to be once I got there. For those who aren't familiar with SF housing - it is hard to find housing, and even harder to find something that is affordable. My biggest fear was that I would end up living in a 5-bedroom apartment with one bathroom (not unusual around here). I actually found my house from a Facebook group, and moved in with a girl I had met one time for 10 minutes (I was putting a lot of faith into that Facebook group).
The rest of the items that I DID bring, I moved by plane. I know, by plane??? I did a lot of research, and found out that Virgin Airlines has a flat rate for checked bags (most airlines will increase the price with each bag you check), and would let you check up to 10 bags (in my case, boxes). SO, I stuffed six Home Depot boxes with my favorite things, and hopped on a plane to San Francisco with just my purse and Cappy as my carry-on! After I got there, I found a service that would pick up all of my boxes from baggage claim and deliver them to my house without me even needing to wait for them after the flight. I literally flew to SF, hopped in an Uber, went to my new place, and waited for my belongings to arrive a few hours later. I say all of that, because to move halfway across the country, it ended up costing me under $500. Seriously. I'm still kind of proud of that.
Now, I'm sure you're waiting to hear the part where the roommate ends up being crazy, or where Jared and I had a falling out, or something crazy like that, but it's all just been a really happy move. I'm in love with this place, and couldn't be happier with this decision. San Francisco is truly a unique city, and I hope everyone gets to experience it at least once!
Cheers to one year in the city by the Bay, and cheers to a few more while we're at it :)
