Member-only story
Why I Moved Out at 17
How moving out at 17 to San Francisco changed my confidence and how I look at fear.
I moved from San Diego to San Francisco, a wide-eyed, innocent little suburban girl. I had no sense of style and was unsure how to put makeup on, but I did it anyway. I had no friends coming with me to San Francisco State, and I honestly didn’t have too many close friends in high school towards the end of my senior year either.
I had been to the university once before for an orientation day, and though it was still California, San Francisco felt different. The school was lovely, nothing fancy, what scared me most was the city. The city of San Francisco is always full of people rushing from place to place, taking buses and trains confidently because they knew exactly where they were going. However, I wasn’t confident, and I didn’t know what I was doing or going.
My family moved me into my closet-sized dorm room on the all-girls floor. I decorated the room with all the teal accessories I could find from Target and hung pictures of art, dogs, and memories from home.
Meeting my roommate was sweet; she was friendly and was also adjusting to living in a big city. She was from a small town in the Bay Area called Grass Valley. She said she visited San Francisco a few times before but wasn’t quite…