As you already know from the title of this post, I am moving. The question is, to where?
I have had many opportunities to base myself out of some of the most incredible place in the US. Seattle, NYC, Chicago (TOP CHOICE) and anywhere in California. Thankfully my photography has given me the opportunity to go to so many of these places and experience living there, even if it was only for a short time.
Chicago has always been the place where I felt most at home. The people and the outpour of support from the local photography community out there is an incredible one. I have made so many amazing new friends in my travels and I wish that I had recorded more of my trips so that you all can experience what my life has been this past year.
At the end of the day there are major points to where I would want to move. How young a location was and how was the market. Chicago was the obvious choice. Hands down. I set my eyes on it. I started making plans and started to tell people just so that it would be a bigger push forward. I was getting my ducks in a row to make the move.
Fast forward, I recently traveled in a giant circle around the state of Florida. From St Pete to Islamorada to Daytona to New Orleans back to St Pete and then, back home to Naples. Unfortunately, on my way up to Daytona from Islamorada I got into a horrific car accident. A car accident that I did not know would make my choice to move a little close to home. The second I got outta my car, I called my mom. Out of sheer panic and relief I called my family. I was so thankful to be alive and it really put more things into perspective. I did not want to move too far from home.
On my last route back home I had a session in Tampa and I stayed in St Pete. I have been to St Pete a few times and it’s always been an amazing experience. The culture there is so different than a majority of Florida. It’s young but not obnoxious. It’s full of art, the kind of art that is not out of date and bland. It hit me during that trip that this is where I wanted to move.
I came home, or to the place that I thought of as home and soon realized that I am alive and that I needed to get out of this town, which is not a bad town, just a town not for the young. The young and creative. It’s getting there but I need to spend my youth in a city where I don’t have to go through a pile of people to find someone my age.
My car accident was the last thing in my life that I, at the time didn’t know, needed to let go. It was my first car that I bought on my own. I had so so many amazing experiences and so many firsts in that car. I was attached to it. But at the end of the day, a lot of those memories needed to ,in a sense, die and I needed to let go. And so I did. I called my insurance and let them know that i will no longer be wanting to purchase back my totalled car and that they can scrape it for metal.
It was this week, this Monday, when I made my final decision that I will move and soon. St Pete.
I know a few people out there and everything is in walking distance. It’s young and full of life. It’s artistic and it’s more of my vibe. It will be hard to leave somewhere I called home for the last 25 years of living, but at least it will be down the road if I ever wanted to visit. Naples will always be home and I do plan to move back here when I have a family and I am in my late 30s or so haha. But for now I want to be young and continue to live adventurously and without fear.
People, the biggest advice I can give you when you think that something will last forever. If you want it to last forever, never hold onto negative feelings and if someone you truly care about takes what you said to them out of context, FUCK THEM. You deserve better. You will get better. It is not the end of your life but the beginning of a new one. One that you didn’t think was possible because you did not allow it to be so. So let go, of everything big or small that is harbouring negative or upsetting feelings.
