I had wanted to move to California for so long. Even before I ever visited, I knew I wanted to live there. It was something that burned deep within me. Just a simple knowing. When I did finally visit and then visited again and again and again, I knew without question that I wanted to live there. But what do you think I consistently heard from people around me? The title of this blog is a good starting point but just add in, “It’s too expensive. You’ll never make it.”
Disheartening and discouraging, I know. But lucky for me, I rarely listen to other people. Often to a fault. This, however, was something I knew I had to do. Not only did I discredit the nonbelievers because of my unwavering desire but it was the fact that I had gone to California and I had seen that ordinary people lived there working ordinary jobs. Turned out that not every person living in Los Angeles had a salary matching Leonardo DiCaprio. I knew it was possible to live there because I had seen other people doing it. So I did it. Lived in an apartment, worked a job at a university and did what many people said was impossible.
I have a friend, Allen Norris that goes by a stage name of Professor Al. Many of my awesome readers and podcast listeners have heard about Al and his journeys walking across the United States. Check out the podcast here if you haven’t heard it. But anyway, I know when he started telling people he was planning on walking from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Los Angeles, California that they laughed at him and had very little belief in him. In fact they thought he was crazy.
After he did it successfully, he was in newspapers and asked to speak at various events. He knew it was possible and that’s all it took.
I’m a writer. My plan is to make this work what I do full-time. Can you hear the snickers and see the sneers? … Me neither. I don’t pay attention to that stuff. I just know that I’ve looked around and have seen far too many people doing passionate work with their lives and making very livable wages while doing so. Much like when I saw people managing to somehow live in California, I see people somehow living what they dreamed about. I did California, I can do this too.
So as I walk away in the opposite direction of the crowd, I just smile knowing it is very much possible.
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