Living Life in L.A.

My boyfriend and I moved to Los Angeles, California from Destin, Florida a little over a year ago.

We left palm trees for more palm trees, right?

It was a grueling three-day drive, but when we got to Los Angeles it felt like a victory even though we had nowhere to live and no source of income. We had less than 2,000 dollars to our combined names, knew no one, but we decided to try anyway. I mean we were already here, right? My boyfriend actually did a video on it for his youtube channel. But that video only shows one portion of our journey, let me tell you the rest from my perspective from then to now.

One small thing I learned is that, for me, it's hard to make friends. I have worked at four places since moving here and I've talked to my coworkers, I even thought I had made real friends at a few of those places but I've only hung out with two people outside of work at my most recent job. And, to be honest, their friendships feel shortlived as they have barely spoken to me since I got fired. And I got fired with no reason given, no warning, no anything. Just taken off of the schedule, but that whole story we might get to later on.

Now, here I am jobless once again. But, more important than learning something about myself that I kinda already knew, living in LA the way my boyfriend and I did it definitely made me stronger. It taught me to be grateful. Allow me to explain.

We were both jobless for a while once we finally got to Los Angeles, we lived in my car with our chihuahua in a Planet Fitness parking lot, shopping for food at Ralphs but not eating the greatest.

(Though to be honest, we ate really well after discovering the clearance section at Ralphs. After eating a lot of canned foods and cold Cup-of-Noodles, the discounted loaves of bread and baked goods were mana from heaven.)

Since we had no showers or toilets in my car, we got memberships at Planet Fitness so we could use the bathroom comfortably and get clean. People don't really want to hire someone who looks homeless, you know? But after getting jobs and saving up, we were able to get a small apartment in Korea Town which is a neighborhood here in LA (though that apartment slowly became a nightmare in an of itself).

We were down on our luck for a while, and let me tell you, sleeping in the driver's seat of a car is not comfortable. But that experience, of being homeless not sleeping in the driver's seat of my car, made me a lot stronger for moments that I'm in now.

It's kinda hard to feel hopeless now even though my boyfriend and I are both jobless again, we live in a wonderfully modern apartment building with a good amount in the bank, when I know what it feels like to be homeless, jobless, and frustrated at it all.

However, experiencing our degree of homelessness didn't just teach me strength it also taught me gratitude.

Having hot food, as simple as it sounds, was so amazing while we were homeless. A simple cheap burger from McDonald's would've made my whole day (though I'm not going to turn one down now either). Our diets while living in the car didn't hold for a lot of hot foods. We ate canned foods, cold from the can, we ate Cup-of-Noodles after letting them sit with room temperature water in them until the noodles were soft enough to eat.

So imagine a break from that room temperature food routine and getting a cheap bowl of Pho or a sandwich from a fast food joint, it was incredible. I was so touched when my boss at the time bought me coffee and another time bought me tea. I was near tears at the generosity and kindness of an acquaintance, and the hot beverage was a wonderful treat.

Pringles, from the clearance section of Ralphs, were so fucking amazing! Seriously, after we got so much cheap food from the clearance section, I remember saying something along the line of "We're going to eat like kings!" Food that I would take for granted, when I have a steady income, I was so into when we were broke as hell.

That would be the biggest lesson I would share with you, be grateful and be appreciative.

Los Angeles is, unfortunetly, filled with fake people but amazing opportunities. My boyfriend and I both had amazing jobs for a while, shitty company but great pay, and during that time especially I took going out to eat often and not worrying about money for granted.

So I need to take my own advice as well.

Right now, since moving from a roach and rat infested studio to our nice new place, I'm in love with having a washer/dryer in our apartment, a dishwasher, and heating/air. Plus no roaches and no rats which is just fucking amazing.

So, if you ever move to Los Angeles just remember to be grateful for the small things and don't live in KoreaTown.