move out of state

”..you paint that shit gold!!”—a good friend of mine.

As is expected, some unexpected things happened and I didn’t leave the state after I graduated. I stuck around, got a lousy job and applied to grad school. It didn’t make sense for me to spend the money I didn’t have to move to a place I’d probably leave in a year for grad school anyway. So here we are, laaaate March 2011, and I have been rejected from 3/4 schools I applied to. The remaining is in NYC, where my boyfriend happens to be from.

He and I have decided that regardless of whether I get in to this program or not, we’re moving to The City together. He is about to finish his PhD and is becoming increasingly disenchanted with academia, while I’m dealing with the personal tragedy of suddenly and unexpectedly losing my father.

At this point, I’m 24 years old and both of my parents are gone (mom died when I was 11). I have one brother and a sister-in-law and I’m not particularly close to any cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. My family feels tiny. Following my boyfriend (of two years and one month) back to his home in NYC feels like the thing to do; it feels like there really isn’t much holding me back here aside from a few amazing friends. Besides, I plan to go into archival/historical work, and NYC will offer me a lot more opportunities than Michigan.

In the last couple years, I’ve actually come to love Michigan more. It’s really gorgeous in some parts, and I have a lot of hope that we can bring ourselves back from this crap recession and do well in the future. I also have a lot of hope and love for Detroit. Lots of people seem to forget that it was once beautiful and powerful.

So in a sense I feel like I’m jumping ship and bailing on a state that needs me, but at this point, I have to do what’s best for myself and I think that means leaving my Mitten for NY, where I’ll have more opportunity and be able to build up a fresh life.

Expected time of moving: late July.

I’d like to make this goal a bit more specific, but I can’t make up my mind where I want to go.
I’m in my senior year at Michigan State, and I plan on taking a couple years off before applying to grad schools to get a better idea of what I want to do with myself.
I’m terrified of moving to a lot of places, honestly—I’m a Michigan resident, and have been for all of my 23 years. I haven’t done a lot of traveling, either. Why am I leaving Michigan? In case you haven’t heard, the economy’s pretty rough here. I’m an art history major, so finding work here will be really hard for me since the humanities budget has been slashed to bits. Michigan isn’t really the most happening place concerning the arts anyway. Also, I’m just kind of sick of it here. Haha.
I have to live in a larger city because I need to be able to interact with galleries and museums, and I’d like to live somewhere where I don’t need a car. For a while, I’d been thinking about Seattle and Austin, but in the last few days I’ve just felt really terrified about moving to either of these places and I’m starting to re-consider Chicago. I originally wrote it off because it get so f**kin’ cold there and I kind of hate the cold. However, it’s a big city that I’m pretty comfortable with. I’ve been there multiple times, and I know I can get around pretty well. Also, I know a few people who live there, and it’s not very far from Home so I can go back and be with my family if I need to.
So right now Chicago feels like the best choice, but who knows. I might change my mind in three days. That happens a lot. =)