Post-Graduate Diaries: Moving to a New City

Dearest Post Graduates,

If you’re anything like me, after my college escapades and post-graduate travels, the number one item on my to-do list once I got home was to move away from my hometown. I wanted to do this for a few reasons. I knew I didn’t want to live in my hometown forever, and as I was starting out on my career journey, moving somewhere a little bigger with more job opportunities and lots of things to do was exciting.

When deciding on where to move, I was debating between Milwaukee or Madison, each about an hour and a half drive from my hometown. This is the perfect distance for me because it’s close enough where I can still visit my family and friends but far enough away where I can be independent and in charge of my own schedule. Both cities met my criteria, I had visited both multiple times before and knew they both suited what I was looking for. In the end, I landed in Milwaukee.

As with everything, there were pros and cons to my move. When I originally came to Milwaukee, I moved in with two roommates who had already settled into an apartment, one of which being my boyfriend, Tanner. While I loved that aspect of it, I didn’t have a say in the location, and I was moving into a small space where they already had a place for everything, and we needed to find more room for my things.

After living here for just over a year now, it took me about eight or nine months for Milwaukee to truly feel like home. One of the reasons is because we were able to move into a new apartment back in August where I got to choose what part of the area I would be living in. After having a few months to explore, I knew there was a nearby suburb that fit my personality way better, still had plenty to do, and where I loved spending my time while only being a fifteen to twenty-minute drive from the city. It was a welcome change that allowed us to still enjoy the things we loved around our old apartment, like our favorite restaurant, La Masa.

While this was an amazing shift, don’t expect your new home to be perfect. For me, the thing I still struggle with is city driving. Driving was never something I enjoyed, so moving somewhere that pushed me to drive around more vehicles and busier roads was intimidating but I’ve slowly figured out what works for me. Personally, I take the extra time when roads are at their busiest to avoid the highways altogether. I may never get used to driving in Milwaukee, but to live here that’s something I have had to accept.

As a part of this life transition, you also need time to build friendships. Making friends as an adult is a lot harder than at any other time in your life, and I will say the environment you work in has an effect on this. Tanner works in retail, and there are a lot of people around our age there that we have become fast friends with from his job. While I am the youngest in my office, I still go to work every day and see people I consider friends. Of course, the relationship is professional, but it’s always nice to have people you look up to and enjoy talking with as your coworkers.

My advice to anyone who is looking to move away from home is to give yourself time. Give yourself the time to find your favorite spots, to get settled into a job you love, and to make friendships. Give your new city the time to become home. You aren’t going to find your favorite coffee shop on day one. You won’t know where to get your hair done the first time you need it cut. Allow yourself the discomfort of finding out what about your surroundings makes you happy and go from there.