TIFU by moving to Washington DC

This isn't really a today story, but rather a year+ undertaking.

I've moved quite a bit in my life. I've bounced around to so many different states, but the longest I've lived in a single place was NYC. I was frustrated in NYC because of all the reasons you may have heard. It is expensive, loud and can be exhausting to navigate. I would regularly talk about moving.

One of the places I always wanted to move to was Washington DC I've worked adjacent to politics for years, so it only makes sense. Throw in I'm constantly consuming political news and talking it, I just found the the entire idea of it interesting.

Every so often, I would travel there for work, have a good time with the people I know there, but it was always short trips. I appreciated the office in DC significantly more than the NYC office. Weirdly enough, I always felt the NYC office had more office politics than the DC one, which even though I like politics, I don't want to be in them and I absolutely can't stand office politics. Too much of a pissing match constantly and navigating personalities that I have no interest in navigating.

Then covid happened. Offices shut down, funny enough, I was in DC for work when it happened. I traveled back to NYC and it was a crazy time to be there.

Over the course of covid, my lease ran out, I threw my stuff in storage and traveled, both for personal and family issues. I eventually ended up back in NYC with a lady I had been dating. Our relationship was on the rocks before covid, because we had different wants for the future. Mind you, we weren't toxic, but we were getting older and just had different wants for the future. So we were talking about breaking up for our future selves, then covid wrecked our world, but we stayed together because the world was so freaking weird and scary.

So, I eventually go back to NYC and lived with the lady. I started to appreciate NYC more than I ever did before. Something about not needing to commute to the office and deal with all that garbage, made start to love the city like I never had before. Basically I could avoid the rat race, because partially I already became stable, but also because I was no longer needing to go into the office constantly.

Then she I started to talk about the future again. Covid was becoming less of a threat, the world was going back to whatever kinda normal it is now. And the problem still remained we wanted something different. At this point work nudged me to moved to DC. They didn't say I must, but they hard suggested it.

So there I was, with the offer to move to DC, which I always wanted, and looking for maybe a way out of this situation. I said, sure, I guess. And off I went. It happened so fast, I honestly had little time to process it all. Usually work moves at a snails pace, but this time they were super speedy.

I've lived here for about a year now. And I gotta say, I freaking hate it here so much. Turns out a visit a few times a year was perfect and anything more is awful.

No offense to anyone that loves this city, and I'm not trying to crap on something you love, but I find it to be just the worst. I've already been mugged. The homelessness is extremely bad. There are panhandlers at every grocery store I go to. I've constantly nearly getting hit by cars, like, I shit you not, I've had to jump out of the way of 3 cars ON THE SIDEWALK. This doesn't include the amount of times I nearly was hit at a red light or stop sign when crossing the street, that happens at least a few times a week.

I lived in NYC, a place pretty known for being wacky, and never was mugged or nearly hit by a car on a sidewalk. I've also lived in more dangerous areas and never had this issue. I've also traveled quite a fair amount and

I describe DC as if it is vanilla that burns your mouth. It is both bland as hell and doesn't seem safe. I mean, give me grit and character if you are going to have all these issues.

On top of that, the entertainment and food here are obviously less great to other places I've lived. The restaurants often seem pretentious, but are also bland and expensive. The entertainment is limited. I mean I don't care for Taylor Swift, but she isn't even playing at a venue here. I use that as an example, because like that is a concrete easy one to use.

Outside of a small, very small, group of friends, all the new people I've met are, idk, Stepford Wives kinda. I feel like the only real conversation I've had with anyone is with a few cab drivers. I could rant about that more, but I'll leave it at that. And even the friends I do have constantly cancel plans. I would say 70% of my weekends I do nothing, because my friends cancel so much. I've even triple booked myself and had all three plans canceled.

Also need to add how much I dislike the weather and the lack of diversity drives me up the wall. Oh yeah, and my vote doesn't really matter anymore.

It is the only place I've lived, where I've stood on a bridge and questioned my life. Don't worry, I won't hurt myself, but the fact that I thought about it worries me quite a bit. Despite having a history of depression, those thoughts never crossed my mind. Some of my friends have also stated they are actively worried about my mental health ever since I moved here and are started to become concerned about my well being.

So, I know many people will say move back to NYC, which I get. But the current position at work has me sorta tied here. And my field is extremely competitive and has limited roles. I know very people in my industry that have consistent work, let alone one that is consistent, stable and has good benefits.

I'm also wondering if I should have broke up with the lady. I mean, maybe I made rash decisions because covid made the world weird. I feel like her future has started to appeal to me more. I don't know if that is just my hatred for DC talking. I have no idea.

I've casually brought up to my managers that I don't like living here. I wouldn't say they are very good at caring or anything like that, so even if I was more direct, I doubt it would matter. I'm also low key worried if I were to move back to NYC they would give me a garbage job, when in reality my DC job is solid. It is everything else outside of the job that I loathe.

This was a sort of a stream of consciousness. I don't have a conclusion to this story other than, ugh, this sucks.

TL;DR: I moved to Washington DC for work from NYC after years of wanting to and I hate living there more than I could have possibly comprehended. Now I feel tied to the area because of the job.

edit: tweaked some language + details