LA Reflection
May 2021Here we are, after two+ years of living in the LA area and I have many thoughts.
Before moving out of Omaha, NE there was a lot of (fair or not) judgment about our destination being Los Angeles. It never failed, when we mentioned we were moving out to California there was always a comment about it being really expensive (no offense but - duh!). I was met with a lot of “people out there are mean” “be careful” etc. you see what I’m getting at. Most of the comments were negative. This made me sad at first because here I was about to make a huge life change that I was really proud of and excited for but over time I began to realize that most of the comments came from the fears of others. After understanding that, I felt more calm and happy about our decision (fun fact- I had never even been to California before moving there).
Now it’s time for yet another chapter of our lives. But let’s rewind & reflect for a minute.
The first year living in California was so *magical*, to be honest. Of course, there were several things that made things difficult but once we both had jobs and it was the weekend, we were on vacation…literally. I filled up every minute of every weekend with fun things to do around the area (I definitely wore John out with packing our schedule). Slowly we explored each different area LA had to offer. Then, before we knew it we had someone visiting every other weekend so we got really good at planning out each day in the most efficient way (and when I say “we” I mean John lol). Having so many people visit all the time made it even more fun because you were exploring together! It always felt like a little bit of home was there with us. Once March 2020 happened things really really changed.
When John and I made the decision to move, I thought I would be so broken up, scared and sad to leave so much family and friends here. A month out from moving…I still hadn’t cried…two weeks out…still nothing. It was so crazy to me how calm and happy I felt about the whole thing. When I finally made it out there with John I still felt that calm and happy feeling. Only when it came time to find a job was I starting to feel something different lol.
While we lived in Burbank we lived in a tiny (and I mean..TINY) studio apartment, then later moved into a one bedroom that felt like a fricken palace compared. We made amazing connections with CityLight LA and our beautiful friends there. We explored Burbank, Pasadena, Hollywood, Santa Monica, the list goes on. We spend many nights in SF with Seth and Mary and so many friends. John and I had date nights basically all the time because we were always together. We went through the very hard transition of living with friends to living with each other (this was such a challenge for me). We found our favorite brunch spots and spent the weekends exploring the hell out of LA.
Moving away from family was hard but moving in with a BOY was harder (if you like Friends…”I have to live with a boy!!!") We went through some new disagreements and did our best to figure out our groove. After a while, we figured out how to have “we” nights and “me” nights after work. It is so important to get your alone time/personal time to keep improving yourself and be your best person for your partner. We learned so much about each other being together so much and having virtually no distractions (AKA family and friends from home). If we had not had those two years “alone” in LA I think it would have been much harder for us to discover so many things about marriage and our relationship.
Overall I am so happy we had that time, I am so happy to be home and I am excited/anxious to start a fresh chapter back in NE. The truth is, there is no guarantee that this is our forever home (even though that could be the case) but we are so happy to be home.
x Mrs Parker
