Just getting up and moving?
 

Has anyone done this? I'm thinking of moving to NYC or California by August. I have relatives and friends in both places. I have no job lined up. I just need a change of location with more opportunities. Right now I live in PA. There's nothing for me here. In the meantime I'm working and saving. Is this a bold step or will I fuck myself over?

Follow your heart! Sometimes a change of pace is nice. My advice, however, is make sure you are not running from something because it will follow you. It may take awhile, but it will catch up. So, take care of business before you move. Good luck.

Take my advice. Go! Don't sit and think up any of the thousands of reasons why you shouldn't. All you're gonna do is mess yourself up, in the long run. Before you know it, you'll be my age, looking back and asking yourself "Why didn't I just do it, when I had the chance?".

It's funny you ask... My wife and I have been talking seriously about packing up the kids and moving somewhere.

We've been thinking about moving to London.

She can teach and I can look for work... we both can get work permits as our grandparents are English.

I'd say do it! (...I'm just not sure it's what I'm going to do yet...)

Just remember, the grass isn't always greener.

Sure, lots of people do it. My ex-girlfriend did it not to long ago. She had a place to stay till she found a job. Now she lives somewhere she wants to be.
I'm going to do it as soon as I get my car paid off (2-4 months). I know someone out in California and I am gone. I may join the Coast Guard, I may get a teaching degree, I may get another crappy call center job, but I love the idea of moving to a different state.

I say do it now while you have nothing holding you down. It has got to be so much easier than trying to wrangle a wife and kids along (not that it can't be done even then). I think if you have nothing keeping you in a place, it would be pretty hard to fuck yourself over just by moving. At the very worst you push back having a nice job or a family (or whatever drives you) by a few months while you set yourself up in a new place.

Agreed. It's not for everybody, even those who think they can move and handle it. One of my buddies up and moved to California with some other friends of his, and eventually came back after about 6 months. I can't imagine how expensive it must have been, but I know he had fun.

My advice to you is to do it if you really want to and have the means. Just plan things out a little bit beforehand. Have fun with your decision...

I get an urge to just drop everything and move. Get new scenery and try something else. But everything and everyone I know are here, and to leave that all behind is tough.

I've done it a couple of times. I would advise making an initial visit to interview and
find a new job <b>before</b> actually moving. But that's me. I'll take the risk of the move, but not blindly.

Also don't expect 'greener' grass, just 'different' grass, and you'll be fine.

Best move I ever made got me out of Flint (Oh Lord shoot me now!), MI and to the nation's capital.
The next 'drop everything' move brought me to NY. Can't wait to see where the next one takes me.

See that is one way to go. Especially if you have a lot of things tying you down. But I think it can end up taking longer, and causing more frustration. If you don't have many commitments, why not just pack up and be gone? Tell your friends you will write, have the yard sale to end all yard sales and stay at a friends house till you find employment.

If you're coming out here to California, and you want to be anywhere on the coast, you need at least a $2K stake to get established, and that assumes you get a job pretty quickly. Which is not so likely in Northern California these days, though somewhat more likely in Southern Cal.

For example, 1-bedroom apts in the great SF Bay area (outside of the _really_ desirable areas) are going to cost $1K a month, and to get into one you need first, last, and deposit, and so you're talking $3K right there. If you can stay with family for a while, though, and then maybe find the time to hunt up an apartment or house share, that'll be better.

Easier to do if you're single. I'm not, and haven't been every time I've made such a move. My priorities and responsibilities may be different from yours. Also, if you live in an apartment or own a house, there's always time needed to get out of a lease or sell. It also depends on whether you have a landing pad (friends) at your new location. We didn't.

My move to DC was prompted solely by a 4th of July weekend visit. We decided we wanted to live there and so took the local newspaper wantads back to Flint with us. We sent out resumes, came back once for interviews, and by the middle of August we were in a new apartment in MD and both starting new jobs. Six weeks to accomplish such a move didn't seem very long.

I moved to NYC with $20 in my pocket and $400 in a savings account. I was promised a job that was to pay US$40k a year, but instead was modified into US$4.35 an hour.

It was long and difficult the first few years, but I was able to get myself to where I am now, where I've been working for MTV for 7 years, I own an apartment in Manhattan, and I have car that's in a parking garage. :) All things that I never thought would ever happen to me when I first set foot here, that was 13 years ago.


good luck!!!

I basically packed in a good job, left all family and friends behind and moved off with my girlfriend. I didnt have a job to go to and hardly any savings, we got through and are only 2 hours away from family and friends anyway so its not that far.
It has been good though getting away and almost starting over again.
Good idea to think it trhough well though, not just pack up and drive off with no idea where your going

I moved from Maryland to south Florida last year. I got a job lined up via the one person I knew there, dropped out of college, scraped together $1500, packed my computer, stereo, clothes, and dog into my car (the essentials!), and drove down.

It was the best move I ever made. My friends and family thought I was insane at the time, but they've since realized it was exactly what I needed to do. Plus they like having a nice place to stay in a tropical climate. :)

As a side note, Pennsylvania sucks. If you live in rural PA, there's nothing to do. If you live in one of the bigger cities, there's nothing to do plus the crime rate is astronomical. And don't even get me started on the roads and alcohol laws. Do yourself a favor and move NOW.

Yeah PA kinda sucks, but I like the area I am in around Philly.

I have a friend who moved after graduating college to Wyoming with an Uncle... found a job and moved out on his own. He stayed there for about a year and a half and now moved to Texas and is living with his brother; looking for a job.

It isnt easy, but I think some people just like the lifestyle of moving around. Another bonus is you can tell the story "I moved to XXX with $100 in my pocket..." which is great!!

If you want to move now, I would do it, else you will regret it for the rest of your life. We have another friend who graduated college with 2 degrees, had a really really nice Job offer in VA. But her parents convinced her to move back to her hometown (Johnstown, PA - ugh) and now she is working at a low paying job at a hospital. Maybe she is happy in that situation but I sure wouldn't be.

I've done this several times for diffrent reasons. In Feb 2001 I moved from my home state of Colorado to South Dakota this was done for family reasons. It wasn't the best thing I could have done but I'm glad I did. After College I moved back to Colorado spent a few monthes out there and I recieved a job offer in Orange California. I figured why not, after 3 weeks I reliezed that Califonia wasn't for me. I got lucky when a good friend from vermont flew out and offered me a job with his company. 2 weeks later i was on the road to Vermont. I don't regret it at all. I moved to a small quiet town and thats what i was looking for the past few years. Every time I got up and moved I wasn't involved in any deep relationships, Most of my stuff fits into the back of my truck and so I didn't have anything tying me down which made it a very easy choice.

I've thought about doing this. I even recently had a house picked out in a new location but then just today in face the house sold right out from under me. He who hesitates is lost I guess or as the saying goes. I'll find another place and then I may have to remove the OH from my handle here :D

Go for it.

NYC and CA or the two most expensive place you could choose though. I hope you can either live cheaply somehow or pull in da coin, or have savings you can blow for initial living expenses.

That aside, if you have no prospects where you are - then freekin' move already. That is the spirit that created this country and keeps it strong. Make your own future. Be the ball danny..

When I did this, I researched potential jobs from the yellow pages and just blind/cold called the ones I wanted to work for. I set up interviews - just call and ask for a job and be very forward and positive and don't give up. I called this one small company 3 times and talked the owner into giving me an interview. I also called several realtors and set up appointments to look at apts. in my price range. All of this was done BEFORE I even went out there. Then, I went out there for a weekend, got a job and an apartment and then moved out there 3 weeks later. It was fairly painless and I did the same thing 2 years later when I moved somewhere else. I wasn't even single - married, no kids.