In August, I finally made my big move. Since I was 17 I knew I wanted to live in Los Angeles, at least for a bit. I interned in LA both the summer of 2016 and the summer of 2017. However, towards the end of my time at college, I had an itch I knew I needed to scratch first.

After I studied abroad in 2016, I was left wanting to explore Europe more. I moved to Rome and Barcelona for 10 months and worked with a travel company, producing media for them as well as working in sales.

When I got back to the states in May 2019, I figured I'd spend the summer at home in Upstate New York to save some money and prep for my move. This plans were thrown out the window when I received a call about a possible job in mid July. Before I knew it, I was on a plane to LA. I worked with my dad to devise a plan - I would head out to LA for 2 weeks to get my bearings at work, look for an apartment, and sort out things of that nature. After the two weeks, I flew home, packed up my life, and then drove back across the country with one of my best childhood friends.

When I got to LA, finding an apartment ended up being easier than I expected. I knew I wanted to live with my friend Hayden - we met the first summer I was interning in LA and had been great friends ever since. With that sorted out, we began looking at apartments.

The thing about apartment hunting is it's REALLY HARD to do from the other side of the country. Additionally, you can't really do it ahead of time - you have to do it when you're looking to move. It's all very time sensitive - hence why I knew a good plan of attack would be me spending two weeks in LA prior to moving here.

We actually only looked at three apartments together total. The first was cute, but very small. It would've worked fine, truthfully, but we figured it didn't really speak to us and we would keep looking. We fell in love with the second apartment, but weren't approved for it, as someone else was "more qualified". I put this in quotes because I don't really agree with how housing is done in America, but what am I gonna do about it right now?

Anyway, not being selected for the second apartment was actually a MAJOR blessing in disguise, because it brought us to the third apartment - the one we ended up signing. In the heart of Hollywood, I didn't even know spaces like this existed. Hayden and I immediately fell in love.

It's been 9 months and we're still decorating/getting situated, but I figured it was as good a time as ever to finally share an apartment tour.