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Dress: Moon River (Also Here) | Hat: Similar | Bag: Similar | Shoes: Marc Fischer | Sunglasses: ℅ Warby Parker
Welp my friends, step #1 of my big move to Virginia is now complete. I moved out of my apartment in Philadelphia and loaded pretty much my entire life into a storage unit in Charlottesville. Now I’m back in the D.C. ‘burbs for the next few weeks waiting for construction to wrap up at my new place.
There are a lot of cons associated with moving: it’s time-consuming, expensive, and quite frankly annoying to redecorate a new place. However, despite the loads of cash I’ve dropped in the past year on moving, I think overall moving to a new place helped me grow as a person. Here are a few reasons why I’m thankful for my year in Philly.
4 Reasons Why Moving To A New Place Helped Me Grow:
I Lived Alone (For the First Time)
Listen. D.C. is stupidly expensive. I don’t think people realize that it’s comparable to New York in rent prices. Philadelphia has a much more manageable cost of living, and I was finally able to live by myself for the first time as a post-grad. I did live alone during my senior year of college, but I don’t really think this counts because I was a student supported by her parents and student loans at the time!
Living alone was an awesome experience. It was so relaxing to come home after a long travel stint and be in peace. I worked from home as well, so it was glorious to not have many distractions…for the most part. I could Netflix for several hours at a time, without someone else asking to use the TV. This might be the last opportunity I’ll get to live on my own, and I’m thankful for the experience.
Soaking Up Another Culture
Philadelphia and D.C. are two very different cities. I’m not gonna lie — even though I’ve only been away from Philly for three days, there are some things I miss about it already. Overall, I found the people to be a little more laid back and a little less Type A than D.C. The pace was slightly slower than D.C., and I enjoyed it. In a few weeks, I’m moving to a new place that is a lot smaller and Southern — and TBH, that’s going to be a really interesting experience for an entrepreneur from D.C.!
Pushing Myself Out of My Comfort Zone
Want to know how I met other bloggers in Philly? The week after I moved, I saw that a ton of the area’s top bloggers were attending an event that was free and open to the public. I decided to go…by myself. I had a friend who was supposed to come with me, but they bailed at the last minute.
I was so established with blogging in D.C. that I rarely attended blog events where I didn’t know at least five people in attendance. I had to completely start from scratch, which was incredibly scary, but worth it in the long run.
Finally Experiencing True City Living
When I “lived in D.C.,” I really lived in Arlington, VA. The cool thing about Arlington was that it was right outside of the city — I could walk to Georgetown from my apartment since I was only 1.5 miles away, and I was only a 10-minute Uber ride to Dupont Circle without traffic. However, to be perfectly candid, I couldn’t justify the cost of rent if I lived in D.C. proper.
In Philly, I was able to live smack dab in the middle of the city. I lived in Northern Liberties, I didn’t have a car, and I was able to walk or take public transit to everything. I’m really going to miss being able to walk to the grocery store, or taking a 5-minute Uber to get my lashes done. I’m going to miss that charming little BYOB that was a 3-minute walk from my apartment, and the little mom and pop shops that lined my neighborhood (my neighborhood didn’t have a ton of chain stores/restaurants).
