New (old) chapter
So Im moving back to California in October. I never thought I'd move back there, especially considering I had never thought I'd live there in the first place.
I moved to California when I was 14 years old against my wishes. I had left a very challenging home situation that the state deemed unfit for me to go back to, so I was moved to California to live with my dad.
I spent a few years really struggling to adjust to California and my new living situation. I wasnt speaking to my mom, I barely knew my dad, and it was a huge culture shock to move from Alaska to California. At the time, I intended to go to undergrad at either University of Washington or University of Alaska Anchorage as soon as I graduated high school.
Well, I ended up going to college in California and making friends there in my 20's. The desire to go back to Alaska all but disappeared. But after quite a few years in California, I wanted to go to UW for graduate school and be closer to my grandparents as they got older. Plus, living in Seattle was on my bucket list. So I moved.
I dont regret it because I did get to spend a lot of wonderful time with my grandparents and got to take care of them until the end (not without unexpected heartache in the process). I checked off UW graduate school as well. But besides those two areas, Seattle KICKED MY ASS. Surly people, awful boyfriends, shitty and unscrupulous landlords, moving constantly, passive aggression thats more abundant than the rain, overpriced everything, constant development, horrible traffic, and zero personalities beyond the surly. I did not enjoy it here for 10 out of the 11 years that I was here.
There were bright spots and some diamonds in the rough along the way, but overall, I would give this place a hard no. I won't miss it.
But I learned a lot about myself, got my life in balance, grew up a lot, and hope that in my return to California, I can right some wrongs that I made previously and be a good friend to the good friends I left behind in California eleven years ago. It's been a lonely trip here in Seattle. I hope San Francisco 2.0 has less of that.