Hello, Santa Monica

Santa Monica (originally home to the Tongva people) has always been a special place to me. Though I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, my extended family were mostly in Los Angeles. As a kid, we’d often head to Manhattan Beach and In-N-Out when visiting my aunts, uncles, and cousins. When it was a really special day, we’d take a day trip to Santa Monica and hang out at the pier. As we were stuck in traffic, I always thought Los Angeles was a special place aside from the current bumper-to-bumper pain we felt.

I flirted with Los Angeles many times, but it never happened. As a 19-year-old, I considered Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. It wasn’t a good fit, primarily it was very expensive and the admissions officer thought it was a great pitch to tell me that Michael Bay is an alumni.

Explosions.

I’ve been in San Francisco for the last four years of my life. San Francisco took me a long time to love. The relationship started rough. After living in New York City for five years (the place that still feels most home) I found myself having the “well, it’s not New York” mentality. That said, the problem with most cities is it is not New York.

Prior to moving, I often flew in for WWDC and client trips. Naturally, all I ever saw was the financial district and Tenderloin-y areas. After the growing pains of moving down, I finally found community and areas I loved, such as my residence in Presidio Heights. I truly learned that any city you live has pros and cons, and it’s up to you to find what you like.

I must confess that my intention to move isn’t because of the mass exodus people are having out of Silicon Valley, but for love. My partner lives in Los Angeles and really looking forward for us being in the same city. We’ve been together for almost two years, and it’s been weekend flights.

Professionally, everything gets to stay the same. I’m really thankful that I can work remote at Webflow and get to work right in the heart of Santa Monica. I’ll also continue to teach my User Experience Design course at General Assembly in San Francisco. I have a great community of people in San Francisco who I hope to stay in touch with, so this is truly the best of both worlds for me.

Hello, Santa Monica.

I’d love to get in touch and build community now that I’m here. I’m going to be pretty engrained in the area as I will go car-less in Los Angeles (!!!) and work from home.

Some community I’m looking for:

• Creative collaboration. I’m looking to do art and photography again and hoping to collaborate with people of all sorts
• People doing interesting things in startups
• Mentoring or being mentored in design, product, and  tech
• Outdoor activities. Biking or surfing? I’m terrible at surfing but am down
• Someone who really loves cats to watch Wilson when I’m not in town

Is this goodbye to San Francisco? Not really. In fact, you’ll likely see me around. They say home is where the cat is, and Wilson is definitely moving to Santa Monica. I need me some Hyperloop, and fast.