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Why I Chose to Base in Philly After 3 Years of Not Having A Home

One the biggest sacrifices I had to make when starting #cantstayput was giving up my home; my personal space, my own shower, my place of zen, my own bed, my clothes and shoes being in one place, my address and at times my sanity. LOL. You get the point.

I had NO idea how much of sacrifice it was going to be. Imagine coming into someone else’s house after having a bad day and having to make small talk because you can’t come into someone else’s house and not speak, or feeling a type of way because people assume that the only thing you could be doing on your computer all day is surfing the web. *Insert Rolling Eyes* Or How about living with boys who could careless about cleaning… (Shower shoes for sure!)

I have many instances or better yet struggle stories about what the last three years have been like. But like I mentioned before, it was the sacrifice I had to make. You can’t build a brand called #cantstayput and stay put– being tied down by $1400/mo rent. Nah bruh. Sustaining that without consistent income was not happening. What I will say is, my experience of becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable has made me into a beast. Ain’t too much I’m not willing to endure for my dreams.

Now I’m at a point where I’m transitioning from being a #FounderToCEO. (Read more here.) In order to really make this transition, which I’m still going through btw, It was essential for me to anchor myself so I could soar to the next level. It can be hard to concentrate and work in a chaotic space that is constantly changing every few weeks. So out of ALLLLL the places I could have based why did I choose Philly?!?!

Here are my reasons:

1. Moving back to California was ideal, BUT Cali is so far. Plus I’ve spent enough time on the west coast to have a grasp of how things flow out there. One of my Best Friends still lives in LA and I have fam in Oakland so I can still post up there to work and network. Plus, I didn’t want to be too far from my Dad in Atlanta. I’m an hour and half flight away from the A.

2. I hadn’t really worked the East Coast since starting #cantstayput. I lived in DC while at Howard and NYC was a city I crashed in a lot so I wanted to have access to these cities, but I didn’t want to pay DC nor NYC prices. The plan was and is to keep my living expenses as low as possible. (I need a smooth and slow transition back into this “stable” life) Plus NYC is $9, 2.5 hour MegaBus ride away… same for DC. It’s nothing to make day trips either way.

3. Me and Philly go wayyyy back. I have tons of family here. I’ve been coming to Philly during the holidays and the summer since I was a kid. So Philly isn’t exactly a new city for me. (Check out my post about my love for Philly here and my Philly photo diary here)

4. This kind of goes back to number 2. But I wanted to pitch myself to 3 major cities in terms of services and products but keep my living cost down.

I’ve been here since March, but the last two weeks marks the longest I’ve been here consecutively. I’m really JUST now starting to get settled.

If you live in Philly or plan to fall through, let’s connect!

(That’s if I’m actually here, I’m based in Philly. I still don’t live anywhere. lol)

–Lo