It felt a little weird. The floral wallpaper and Hello Kitty posters still adorned the walls, but all the furniture was different. The room felt crowded with the three dressers and 42-inch plasma tv that had fit so nicely in my apartment San Francisco. It was the first time I had moved back home since I moved out to go to college.
I should be grateful.
My New Zealand adventure was over, and I was back in the Bay Area. Despite the risky move of putting my job search on hold to travel halfway across the world, I received a job offer for a part-time summer internship. Things ended up working out. And fortunately, unlike many of my classmates who also graduated without a job, my parents lived within commutable distance of the job. Free housing. I really lucked out.
But this was far from a permanent solution. The internship was for ten weeks. I’d still have to find full-time work. And I also wanted to make sense of the mismatch that my mentor pointed out between what I thought I wanted to do, and what really excited me.
I can’t stay here.
My hometown, though a great place to grow up as a child, wasn’t exactly the best place for a soul-searcher to thrive. It was mostly residential area, with big-box stores and chain restaurants. You needed a car to get around. Unlike in San Francisco, Berkeley, or Oakland, serendipitous discoveries while meandering around were not as common. If I wanted to meet up with potential mentors and employers, I would have to plan ahead and schedule them out to make time to drive into the cities. My mind had felt so alive and bright while in business school, but now it felt like it was growing dim.
I need to be closer… Closer to the people I want to meet. Closer to where the action is. I need to be inspired.
It’s amazing what the universe sends your way once you identify what you truly need. One of my friends heard that I was looking for a place to stay in the SF-Berkeley-Oakland area. She offered up her apartment for the month she was working on an out-of-town project. Great, housing in SF!
But she had also offered it to another person, so I’d have to work things out with them. Turns out her friend’s internship was in SF, so it made the most sense for them to stay there, but the friend had housing in Berkeley that I could stay in while they stayed in SF. Even better! My internship was in Berkeley, so that worked out.
The friend gave me the keys, and this is was where I would spend the next month:
I couldn’t believe it. I had gone from living at my parents’ house, to living in a million-dollar mansion, and all it cost me was the courage to ask for what I needed. I need to be inspired. And indeed, I was.
Have you ever experienced the miracle of getting exactly what you needed?
What do I do with my life? 