to a state i * hated * just last year 🫣

F l o r i d a

🌴

F l o r i d a 🌴

can we believe it?

leaving chicago? no more city girl? am i okay?
long story short: i’m not sure LOL

here’s the story: this wasn’t my idea lol

keith, my very lovely boyfriend ❤️, has been talking about moving to florida for the past two years. i completely ignored him for the first year (like duh… it’s florida 🥴) but by year two, my ears reluctantly opened.

every winter i’d hear him complain about the cold and how miserable he was. me being the mental health ~ expert ~ i am, i started thinking
* winter depression *. he had all the symptoms: hibernating, sluggish mood, no desire for social interaction, weight fluctuations, sleeping a ton + a lack of desire for literally anything. realizing all of this hurt my heart 😞💔

one day he was getting ready for work and everything changed. the company he spent 6 years working for no longer brought him joy. it was draining the life right out of him 😔. i’m not talking 6 years of him pushing paper at some desk job - this man was THE MAN: top rep of the company…. consistently. people knew who he was and they respected him. he did so much for that company 🙄 (iykyk) & i went from seeing him SO passionate to absolutely miserable —-

so i said, “you should just quit.”

i swear he looked at me like that was against the “rules” or something lololol. leaving a job of 6 years? not becoming a VP of an office? completely starting over? it wasn’t that easy but in the end, he did just that. hasta la vista, baby ✌🏼 and i’m so happy he did🌟💫❣️

fast forward a bunch of months later and keith is running his own business! like whaaaaaaaaa?! i’m beyond proud 🥹. it’s been a rollercoaster. the reason this is all relevant: his mental health remained the same, even with all the positive changes that happened.

if you’re not from chicago you proably know that it gets cold here. but you don’t know * how * cold it gets. it’s brutal…. bruuuuutaaaaaaal. it also never ends. we get like 3 months of summer and let me tell you, those three months, are 🤌🏼. something we call, summertime chi and it’s oh oh oh ohhhh so glorious but oh oh ohhhhh so short. ❄️☀️🌧🌦🥶

keith has only lived in IL and desperately wanted to try something new. at this point, i had heard enough and told him that if he reaaaaaally wanted to move, then he had to get the ball rolling.

i made it clear that i’d happily make a trip to the ~ sunshine state ~ but that my in my heart of hearts, I didn’t think i was going to like it. i didn’t think i was going to connect with any of the people, i have never been a southern girlie 🤠🙅🏼‍♀️, i really don’t like being hot and i thought it was going to be… trashy (don’t @ me).

plus, my gut was telling me that this “trip” was never going to happen if i wasn’t the one planning it.

but let me tell you something, if a man really wants something, he WILL do it. ladies, take note. 📝

next thing i know, it’s december and we’re in tampa. i wish i could say he did all the planning but let’s be real, i made a full blown itinerary and he simply booked the flight and hotel WHICH I AM VERY GRATEFUL FOR.

i loved tampa. i loved it. i loved everything about it. i couldn’t have been more wrong about florida (at least tampa). it truly is like the midwest of the south and it was AMAZING seeing keith so happy. the only problem, was that tampa just wasn’t “it”. and as much as i loved everything, i knew it wasn’t the place for us.

tampa

everything is so spread out so you have to drive everywhere (i don’t have a license/haven’t driven in years). it wasn’t as boujee as i’d like, and the food was… bleh. so when we went back home, i told keith we were moving next door to saint petersburg lmfao 🤪 . we had never been before, BUT in my gut, i felt like st pete was a more elevated tampa. knowing what i know now,

tampa is more metropolitan & st pete is more cosmopolitan 👒💸

we booked another trip to st pete this past week and it was everythingggggggggg i was looking for AND more. when we went to tampa we took 34923804938 ubers, in st pete we took one.

i repeat: ONE UBER THE ENTIRE 6 DAYS. the city girl in me was drooling.

I could bore you with all the reasons I love st. pete but tbh, it’s still too premature. we were only there for 6 days and a lot of that time was spent scoping out apartments, neighborhoods, housing, etc. all said and done, it has everything we want. the rent is dramatically high, which is #annoying. but we quickly realized that we are definitely not the ONLY people with the idea to move to florida lol 😅 it’s us and literally everyone else… but that’s life, what can ya do? shit’s expensive 💰

there are some cons: i’m not a fan of florida’s “style” meaning I truly cannot stand that everything is painted various shades of coral — like i swear to god even the CVS was painted an orange/coral 🥴

however, when looking at the * bigger picture * as my therapist would say lol — would i rather deal with some dated architecture that needs a drastic revamping or stay in a city that not only makes my partner unhappy BUT ALSO has one of the highest crime rates in america, taxes that are THROUGH the roof, a winter that never ends and a politicians that seem determined to ruin what used to be the greatest city on earth? I’ll choose the coral CVS, thanks 😌.

SEPTEMBER 2022 HERE WE COME

i cannot WAIT to take y’all on this journey with me, so stay up to date bc i’m lowkey freaking out but also so excited! i know no one in florida so this will be a completely new chapter for me!

we’re moving