Initial Thoughts
I work for a team based in the Bay Area and have been working remotely from the east coast for the past 1+ year. During this time, I had a lot of mixed sentiments and nervous, unsure thoughts leading up to this move. The initial excitement and momentum of moving during summer 2020 was halted by the pandemic, since I spent most of 2020 and spring 2021 living at home in NY. Then I spent summer 2021 living in Cambridge, MA which was SO much fun but not exactly where I felt like I needed to be regarding my current job and early career. However, living in Cambridge felt right and gave me the time and space needed to do housing research on my own pace and ultimately land on the apartment where I currently live. I finally took the leap and moved here to Sunnyvale, CA at the end of September 2021.
Moving Process
Many people like to plan far in advance for big moves, especially cross-country ones, but I wouldn’t put myself in that category. It’s ironic because my full-time job literally involves planning and tons of organization on a weekly and quarterly basis. But given the weird world we live in, I prefer to put minimal plans on my personal life and find it annoying to map out all the details when things are bound to change anyways. For this reason, I moved with only 3 large suitcases.
My parents came with me, which was great since it’s always helpful to have extra hands and moral support. The few days after landing, we were running around doing a ton of apartment shopping while catching up with family friends and it was kind of chaotic. As a consequence of minimal planning — what I didn’t realize is how many quick decisions must be made on the spot after a move such as which mattress to buy or which desk, couch, tables, lamps, etc. Having lived in only furnished apartments up until now, I wasn’t used to furniture shopping for myself so decision paralysis totally hit me at times.
Not everything goes smoothly either — my WFH monitor that I shipped ~2 weeks ago isn’t scheduled to arrive for another 2 weeks due to COVID shipping delays, assembling furniture can be really confusing, and paper/cardboard cuts are such a thing.
Post-Move, ~1 week in
My first reaction was “hmm what have I just done with my life??!?”. I have literally no idea how I’m going to like living in California because it’s not something I pictured but I’m pretty excited and happy to be here! Moving to a new place can be unnerving and ridden with all sorts of mixed feelings but I’m sure this is a shared experience that a lot of people have.
It is so nice to finally be able to end my work-day at ~5 pm, a luxury I haven’t been used to this past year. I’m no longer doing mental calculations of the time zones most of my team members are living in, and I feel the energy of work more now that I’m living in the same time zone as my team. My teammates have also been very kind and curious about how my move was and are even organizing a welcome, in-person get-together soon which I’m really excited for. It’s kind of a surreal feeling to be able to finally meet all the folks I’ve been chatting with virtually for so long.
Overall, I’m very excited to explore the area and become comfortable with different parts of the South Bay and SF.
Final Thoughts
Moving cross-country can be pretty scary, especially if you’re heading somewhere you don’t already know a ton of people or leaving a very comfortable place. I want to be the sort of person who welcomes more new experiences, and a healthy amount of discomfort tends to tell me I’m heading in a good direction. It’s also just an enjoyable feeling to actually follow through on something for yourself (regardless of how it turns out), so I’m weirdly proud of myself for pulling the trigger.
Thanks for reading, and if you’ve moved somewhere new recently, please let me know if any of this resonated with you.
