Moving to Nashville
I was 27 years old and I remember being in Pittsburgh wondering why I still lived there. Up until that point, I lived in Pittsburgh for 26 of 27 years. The only year where I didn’t live in Pittsburgh was spent living in Los Angeles. Growing up, I assumed that I’d live in Pittsburgh for my entire life. After all, that’s what all of my family members before me had done. And, so, I didn’t see myself doing things any differently. Aside from not putting much thought into living elsewhere growing up, Pittsburgh is also where my dad’s business is located. For my entire life, my plan was to work for my dad and, eventually, assume the role of President/CEO of his company. So, when I decided that I no longer wanted to pursue that, it no longer made much sense for me to stay in Pittsburgh. Once that decision was made, I had to start thinking about where I was going to move. At the time I was trying to make my decision, my younger sister, Alicia, was living in Nashville which was a city I visited frequently. Every time I would go and visit Alicia, I’d have an excellent time and I’d return home with fond memories. So, it only made sense that I’d consider Nashville. After applying for only 2 jobs, one in Columbus, OH and one in Nashville, TN, I received an offer from the company in Nashville. Without hesitation, I decided to take the position. My mind was made and all that was left to do was execute the move. It was May of 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. I told my family that I was leaving and the countdown began.
I arrived in Nashville on July 13th, 2020. Luckily, my sister had a couch in her apartment that she allowed me to stay on for a few days. I gave myself until the end of July to secure my own place. I spent the first week in town looking for possible places to live. My first objective was to find where my new job was so I could get a good geographical feel for the different areas that surrounded it. After discovering that my new job was located about 20 minutes outside of downtown Nashville and there weren’t going to be many places with people my age nearby, I decided to redirect my search efforts downtown. After living with my sister for about a week, I was starting to get sick of her cat jumping on my head in the middle of the night while I was trying to sleep. So, I decided to book a hotel room a few doors down from her apartment building for 4 nights. I changed my timeline from the original end of the month to within the next 4 nights. Knowing I had 4 nights to secure a new living arrangement, I engaged an Apartment Locator service. Within hours, the lady that worked for the Apartment Locator service had narrowed my search down to a few different places and arranged appointments for me to view them all. After looking at a few of them, I determined that they all were pretty much the same. Even more, they were all pretty much the same thing as the apartment my sister was already living in. So, after more thought, I decided to look at a studio apartment in my sister’s building. It fit all of my criteria and I could see myself being happy in it for at least a year. Without giving it much more thought, I communicated to the Apartment Locator that I wanted to take the apartment in my sister’s building. Within 2 weeks of being in town, I secured a serviceable apartment for which I would spending at least the next year.
Now, here I am, 9 months later, still satisfied with my decision but getting ready to decide where I want to move next. Regardless of where I move, I’ll never forget my first apartment in Nashville. It’s the greatest move I’ve made in my entire life and I really feel like it has changed my life forever.
Here’s to many more years in the Music City!
