{"id":463399,"date":"2026-09-14T14:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T14:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/463399\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T14:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T14:38:09","slug":"thought-i-found-my-perfect-home-in-california-why-i-left-it-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/463399\/","title":{"rendered":"Thought I Found My Perfect Home in California: Why I Left It Behind"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I moved to San Diego<\/a> in 2021, I thought it was my perfect home.<\/p>\n

I’d spent months living in different US cities \u2014 none of which were quite the right fit \u2014 before moving to California.<\/p>\n

I absolutely loved taking runs on the city’s beaches and hunting for the best tacos<\/a> in different neighborhoods on weekends. I decorated the brick walls of my San Diego apartment with work from local artists and bought cute furniture for my patio.<\/p>\n

It felt like somewhere I could stay forever. After five years, though, I gave up my apartment, furniture, and car, and left the city.<\/p>\n

Despite the highs and lows, I think I made the right choice.<\/p>\n

A career pivot made me rethink my plans<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

At first, I planned to keep my San Diego apartment as a home base.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Julia Atkinson<\/p>\n

For most of my time in San Diego, I worked a desk job and commuted to La Jolla, about 12 miles away, multiple days a week. After nearly three years, though, I left the role to pursue my dream of writing about travel.<\/p>\n

At this point, I had no plans to move: I figured I’d keep my San Diego apartment as a home base, and take short-term, more local trips to explore the rest of California.<\/p>\n

For six months, this went well. I loved exploring national parks<\/a> and beaches nearby and writing about my experiences. However, it didn’t take long for me to start thinking bigger.<\/p>\n

Whenever I was back home and writing at my desk, I’d look out my window and imagine traveling to completely new places full-time. I pictured myself on expeditions in the desert, hiking in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, and standing in the shadow of Uzbekistan’s Kalon Minaret.<\/p>\n

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Although traveling long-term was fun to dream about, I initially didn’t know if it would be a financially smart choice. As my Excel spreadsheet on dream travel destinations<\/a> ballooned, though, I started thinking through the logistics of leaving San Diego. <\/p>\n

After all, if I left my home base, I could sell most of my belongings and my car, and put the money toward travel. <\/p>\n

Plus, I wouldn’t have to pay rent in an expensive city<\/a> like San Diego \u2014 something that didn’t make much sense when I wanted to write about travel. I decided to make the leap and leave the United States indefinitely.<\/p>\n

The hardest part of moving was leaving my friends and an apartment I loved. However, I reminded myself that my friends were just a call or a visit away, and I could always find a new apartment if I decided to settle down again.<\/p>\n

Living on the road hasn’t always been easy<\/p>\n

I headed first to Voss, Norway, to volunteer for a month in the Norwegian mountains. There, I wrote, explored nature, and saved money on rent since the volunteer gig included free housing.<\/p>\n

After that, I headed to Latvia and then traveled through Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. After a few weeks of traveling in Central Asia, I settled in Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, for a month to write up notes and develop story ideas.<\/p>\n

I’ve learned that working while traveling isn’t the same as vacationing. Sometimes, I have to say no to invitations from other travelers because I have work. I’m no stranger to working a 9-to-5, but I underestimated how tough it would be to stay inside writing when I was in a new-to-me place with so much to see.<\/p>\n

At hostels, I sometimes listen with envy as backpackers talk about impending border crossings and multi-day hikes<\/a> while I’m busy writing up a story. I’ve discovered that I have to travel much more slowly than I expected in order to balance work with new experiences.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I get lonely, but I work hard to make friends on the road<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

I’ve had life-changing experiences since leaving California.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Julia Atkinson<\/p>\n

Another big adjustment has been living so far from the support system I built in the US. I’ve been afraid of getting lonely, so I’ve been working hard to make new friends through meet-up apps and Facebook groups.<\/p>\n

I went on a hike with a group of women I met on Facebook. In Kyrgyzstan, a young local woman and her mother replied to a message I’d posted online, and we met up for tea and a walk around their favorite park.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite experiences so far was sharing dinner at a hilltop restaurant with two solo travelers I’d met on a free walking tour the day before.<\/p>\n

Despite the challenges of living on the road<\/a> \u2014 and the things I really miss about California, like the gorgeous beaches and the community I built there \u2014 my life has improved in many ways since I left San Diego nearly five months ago.<\/p>\n

Now, I’m always finding new nature, museums, and food that inspire my writing. And I love the freedom to pack up and go anywhere that strikes my fancy.<\/p>\n

I don’t know if I want to travel forever, but I’m so glad that I took the risk and tried something new. Besides, San Diego will still be there if I ever want to move back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When I moved to San Diego in 2021, I thought it was my perfect home. I’d spent months…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463400,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3895,174,7,9,8,1409,146258,1576,180840,3906,182478,136924,74,2422,182477,1968,72],"class_list":["post-463399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-apartment","tag-beach","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-city","tag-facebook-group","tag-friend","tag-kyrgyzstan","tag-month","tag-multiple-day","tag-perfect-home","tag-san-diego","tag-travel","tag-uzbekistan","tag-work","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}