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I wanna move!

Just move! I've done it many times. A few years ago I moved to CA with about 2 weeks notice. I had a 4 week job offer so I was like...WTH, and packed up the car and moved out west! Kept getting more work...so I'm still here!
 
I wish it was that easy. More than anything.

It can be.

I grew up in FL on the coast. I was attending a lame art college in Tampa and decided one day it was useless to me and I was going to Orlando to attend a better school that offered what I needed. I saved a year and moved to Orlando for school.

After I graduated there I was in a crappy job to make enough to survive and a classmate of mine said if we moved to SC his dad would give us an office in his building and pay for the software we would need to start our own studio.

So I picked up and moved there.

A year later we had made nothing and called it quits.

I moved back to Clearwater and got a crappy little apt in Dunedin. I was the poorest I have ever been in my life. At one point I was working at a friends Chinese restaurant to be able to at least eat every day.

I couldn't pay the rent so I was evicted. I had to do the worst thing in the world....move back in with my folks. I was 22...it was miserable. I got a job that paid enough to survive and a few months later I moved out.

My gf helped us get a computer so I was able to work on some stuff to try and convince a studio to give me a job.

Eventually that worked and I started working in my first real studio. I got fired because they decided to hire someone else that used to work there....I went to the place he had left.

A year later they fired me for not working late on my birthday!!

A friend in LA said the studio he was working at needed help on a feature. I talked to them, they offered me a 4 week job.

With $800 in my account and a few Visa gift cards I headed out west to pursue my dream of working on movies.

3 years later (now) I have a nice place, plenty of money in the bank and I am leading VFX feature film teams! I feel I took the right path, as horrible and difficult as it was I am now happy!

Change can be frightening....but the result can be good.
 
in August I sold everything i didnt NEED and packed the essentials into my Honda Accord. I was headed to L.A. from North Carolina but made a pit stop in Brooklyn for a week and hung out with my best friends, then drove across the country to California. I had quit the best job I ever had and left everyone I had known for the past 10 years. I was miserable in NC and had to get out. I had similar problems as you do. I wasnt looking to escape all my problems and live in bliss..I just need NEW problems to deal with..something different. Its not an easy thing to do, and since i only had $60 in my pocket when I got to L.A. things get a little rough from time to time. But i can honestly say it was the best decision I have ever made. I finally feel free...I feel like I'm living my life for the first time..im 25

although it was great for me..i wouldnt recommend that anyone mimic my approach...i knew what i was getting into and was more than ok with accepting the challenge and risking it all...so my advice would be to find a way to do it that fits your comfort level and go for it
 
Thank you for sharing that. I appreciate it more than you know.

The only bills that I have to go with me is my car payment, insurance, and cell ~ why did you choose Cali?

So you have no regrets? Takes a lot of courage to pull off what you did at your age.
 
I was in NC...but I was raised in NJ...so NC was a lot slower paced that what i was used to. SO my requirements for finding a new home were
1.Fast paced city-life
2.Plenty of opportunity to pursue a music career or anything else based on creativity and art
and 3...the new place needed to be warm ALL THE TIME

I hate the cold, and felt that I had paid my winter dues during my 13 years in NJ

the music and creativity party were the most important...so my choices were NY, Los Angeles, or Florida as a last resort....NY gets hella cold..so that was off the list quickly...i spent a few weeks in Florida with my family and just didnt like the vibe of it. But as soon as I stepped out the doors of LAX...I felt at home and knew I needed to live there. So I spent the next year planning and saving...mostly planning lol

Once i got here I was lucky enough to know the right people and be in the right places at the right time...so yea..things got rough with my lack of money...but with the people i was around..and the fact that i've been through A LOT worse things...even my bad days in Cali are better than my good days in NC

Like you...the only bills i have are my car payment insurance and cell phone...but when your account looks like this ---> $0.00 ....even those few can be big problems

It all boiled down to the fact that Cali as a whole, makes my SOUL happy which makes my life worth living...My music means everything to me and i am making great progress with it now...nothing else really matters to me....any struggle i go through now is only temporary until my 2nd album is done..so i have no problem going through hell to get to heaven, if that makes sense...i love every day I wake up here
 
My brother is a nurse in SoCal. He likes to move around a lot. He was working as a home care nurse, but a month before his current tour was done, he got terminated. He is taking this week off and will be back somewhere else. I don't know if it was the flooding or the state being broke that caused his layoff, but he had 72 hours to move out of his provided apartment and find one in Bakersfield. I grew up moving every few years and even if I have no issues with moving, I like being rooted. He likes the nomad life.
 
i did!!

i just moved to L.A. in August. I had enough money for 1 months rent and $60 after that. Like i mentioned before...i was fortunate enough to meet the right people at the right time and my roommates are really good people...i made it this far fairly comfortably via craigslist and temp agencies [comfortable for me may not be comfortable for you..but i came here with a purpose..nothing else matters]...i didnt want a job..so i didnt start looking for real employment until after thanksgiving due to an emergency situation.....i start work on monday, making more than i did in NC. im definitely not bragging..just saying that the stats are an overall assessment of the state as a whole 1...but the way i saw it..these career websites havent gone bankrupt and craigslist is still up...that means SOMEBODY is hiring SOMEWHERE...dont put limits on your abilities and you'll be amazed at what you can accomplish...definitely takes hard work, humility and a positive attitude though
 

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