I am going to begin this by saying how truly grateful I am to have lived in Southern California my whole life. In no way do I regret my location of upbringing nor do I feel ungrateful for living in a place that is so desired by many all across the world.

With that being said, I want to leave Los Angeles, get out of Southern California and maybe ultimately actually leave California as a whole. This is probably shocking to many who lust after Los Angeles, and even to many, who live here and love it. But, hear me out.

California is highly sought after, especially Southern California, and most of all Los Angeles; Hollywood, Venice Beach, Santa Monica, Malibu, the list goes on and on. Because of this desire, and this idea of the “California dream,” it has become busier and more crowded than ever. This is what I don’t like.

The traffic everywhere is horrendous. Going five blocks in Los Angeles could take half an hour when it should take five minutes tops. I recently took an eight-and-a-half-mile drive from West Hollywood to Silverlake and it took me an hour and a half. Without the crazy rush of traffic, this drive should take about 25 minutes give or take, and that is including hitting red lights down Santa Monica Boulevard and some light traffic. But, that’s the thing. Light traffic doesn’t exist anymore in California. Well, that is it doesn’t exist anymore unless you leave to go to your location at 5 a.m.

When I drive from Los Angeles back to school in Santa Barbara, I leave at 5:30 a.m. in order to not sit in my car for four hours in traffic where the highest speed I reach is 20 miles per hour on the freeway — if I’m lucky.

We live bumper to bumper. Crowded, one on top of another. The living situation and arrangements are becoming increasingly difficult, expensive and straight up impossible for a lot of people.

Studio apartments in not so ideal neighborhoods are becoming increasingly unaffordable and it is being made next to impossible to live in Southern California. Very few can afford to put money down for a house anymore out here, and instead end up paying a few thousand dollars a month for a small apartment. With these high prices, you find multiple people living in these tiny places, sometimes more people than is actually allowed because it is so difficult to pay rent and afford everything else in order to live.

It shouldn’t be like this. It shouldn’t be bumper to bumper traffic during the middle of the day — rush hour, sure, but not at 2 p.m. It shouldn’t be so hard to find an affordable place to live that isn’t the size of a shoebox in a not-so-great neighborhood.

Granted, I don’t know any place else, and I am sure that every place has different pros and cons, but as of right now in my life I want to get out. Get out of the crowds and the traffic and the housing costs. If I ever want to buy a house, I predict that finding an affordable one here will just not be very likely.

While I’ve always said that New York City is where I want to be, I think more realistically for me financially as well as mentally is a smaller town. I crave a small town, where you know your neighbors and recognize people at the grocery store, where homes are more affordable and money can be saved up instead of your whole paycheck going straight to rent.

While my opinion could easily change and I will always be a California girl at heart, but as of today, I would like to experience a different type of lifestyle. By no means, have I fallen out of love with my first home, but rather I feel as if I need to experience another place to really find out what I love in a city. I will always be eternally grateful to have had the opportunity to grow up here and I recognize how lucky I am.

Granted, it’s always said that once you leave California it will just be much harder to ever come back…something else I’ll have to consider.