Tonight marks the last night I will be staying at my current place. A new chapter is being written in my book, and with it the last page of the last chapter of the last book is coming to a close.

Just last month I passed my 3 year anniversary of when I first moved to Los Angeles from Riverside. I suppose there is more backstory and facts that could be presented, but suffice to say that I have lived in the two areas nearly my whole life, having gone back and forth between the two due to divorced parents. I had been out there longer than any other one city/town in my whole life up until I moved 3 years ago (from high school until my early 30’s).

The past 3 years have been wonderful in many aspects. Not only did I move out of the shitty podunk town in which I used to live, but I began getting my shit back together. I won’t go into details, but let’s just say that I had hit rock bottom and I have pulled myself up out of the ashes and have begun to move forward with my life. Starting over is difficult, but I have managed to go from an unlicensed and unemployed single person living with family to a licensed and employed person who is moving in with his girlfriend tomorrow.

The new place is just another stepping stone in a long line of stepping stones. It was about 5 or 6 years ago that I decided to go back to school and pursue higher education. I finished my Associates degree pretty readily but have had some pitfalls in the time since. I really don’t have all that much left to do to finish my Bachelors degree, and that is the first bit on my itinerary once I’m moved — I want to finish my education.

From there, the goal is to get a better job. We are going to have roommates at the current place and one of them happens to work for the school district, so I’m going to keep my ear to the ground and perhaps I’ll be able to get a job working there, which would be an improvement over my current employment. Again, stepping stones. My lady an I also want to eventually have our own place without roommates (which is so damn hard out here due to how high the cost of living is) so that will be our goal once we have both found better, higher paying jobs.

After that, the sky is the limit. We have spoken about the possibility of moving out of state, and that is something that other members of my family have also made mention of, so there is a real possibility that I will move out of California within a few years. That’s still up for debate, but if I could find a decent wage and it would go farther along with having a more temperate climate I’m all for it. I don’t really care where I live as long as there is fast Internet.

So I have to finish packing the remaining bits and bobs tonight, and tomorrow my boss is letting me borrow the truck to move my shit over to the new place. I’m really looking forward to a new chapter in my life and having it turn back around in a few short years. If all works out as I expect I should be doing really well by the time I’m 40, and that’s only 5 years away.

Here’s to new beginnings.