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I uprooted my life and moved across the country to Los Angeles to 'make it' and I failed. Here's why I would do it again.

Frank Olito   

I uprooted my life and moved across the country to Los Angeles to 'make it' and I failed. Here's why I would do it again.
  • In 2017, I uprooted my life and moved to Los Angeles to start a career in screenwriting. After three months, I didn't get a job and returned home, but I don't regret it.
  • The experience taught me to live outside of my comfort zone and to be comfortable with feeling fear.
  • At the end of my journey, I fell back in love with my original career, and now I'm happy I don't have to wonder, "What if?"
  • Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

After reading "Of Mice and Men" in high school, a quote stuck with me: "The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry." Instead of accepting the lesson at face value, I decided to defy it. I figured if you plan strategically and intelligently, everything must go according to plan.

This belief was a driving force throughout my college years. I thought if I focused on my journalism major, took up as many extracurriculars as possible, and accepted internship after internship, I would live the life I always dreamed of. I figured if I followed this plan, nothing could go wrong.

After working hard to set up my dream career in New York, it all started to fall apart

By 2017, two years after college, I had fallen out of love with journalism. I was laid off and was collecting unemployment for the seventh month in a row. I wondered where it had all gone wrong. I felt like it was time to move on and to try something new.

In the back of my mind, I've always wanted to work in the TV and movie industry. I dreamed of writing for the popular TV shows, punching up scripts in a writer's room, and seeing it all air on national TV. After struggling to find a job and cashing what seemed like my 1,000th unemployment check, I decided to attempt to break into Hollywood.

I took a leap of faith and moved to Los Angeles ... but that didn't work out either

I packed most of my belongings into one suitcase and subleased my Brooklyn apartment to a stranger. Everyone asked, "What are you going to do when you get there?" I didn't know how to answer. For the first time in my life, I didn't have a plan. I was forging a new path with absolutely no foresight as to what was going to happen.

I landed in Los Angeles in February 2017 and was ready to start my new life. I was wide-eyed and excited about my future.

Unfortunately, after three months, everything fell apart again. I still had no job, no car, no money, and I was jumping from sublet to sublet in a city I barely knew. At the end of the three months, I booked a flight home to New York and considered my move across the country a failure.

Three years have passed, and now, I have reframed that time in my life as a success. In fact, if I had the choice, I would do it all over again.

The experience brought me out of my comfort zone

For most of my life, I've lived on the East Coast. I grew up in Long Island, went to school in Boston, and then returned to New York after college. I am an East Coaster through and through, so my decision to move across the country gave me the opportunity to live somewhere completely different than anything I had known.

For starters, I am used to taking public transit everywhere I go. In Los Angeles, I had to get comfortable with driving again. I had to acclimate to sunny, warm weather, I had to get used to the Los Angeleno fitness culture, and I had to understand that everyone in LA works in the "industry."

Not to mention, I was actively looking for a job, so I had to network, reach out to people, and set up meetings — all of which were difficult as an introvert.

Getting out of my comfort zone took me to new places and introduced me to new people. Moving to LA taught me that living outside of your comfort zone will bring you exciting opportunities, and it's the way I've lived ever since.

The move taught me to not be afraid of fear

The weeks prior to moving to Los Angeles were filled with anxiety and nerves. It was a scary thought to move across the country away from friends and family. It gave me anxiety to think about what I would actually do once I got there.

But in the end, I decided that fear is a good thing: A safe life could lead to a stagnant life. I moved across the country because I was scared. At that time, I knew I needed to wake myself up by doing something that truly frightened me.

Since then, I've implemented that practice into my daily life. If something gives me pause, I sometimes do it anyway (as long as it's not dangerous) because we only have one life and we need to live it to the fullest.

I also learned how to be comfortable with loneliness

When I moved to Los Angeles, I had one friend in the city and knew I would be spending a lot of time alone. Although I've always been somewhat of an introvert, the loneliness did get unbearable at certain times. I would go for walks, sit in a cafe, or go to networking events and meetups just to feel included.

Today, I am more comfortable being alone. I actually feel joy taking a walk by myself or sitting in a cafe for hours. Since my journey to LA, I've even taken several solo trips and explored new cities by myself. Moving to Los Angeles gave me the confidence to do that.

I rediscovered a passion I thought I left behind

Before moving to LA, I fell out of love with journalism, and then the industry gave me the boot by laying me off. At the time, I thought my career in journalism was over and that I would start working in a new, creative industry.

While in Los Angeles, however, something interesting happened. I started reading more news, interviewing more people for freelance articles, and suddenly, I was falling in love with journalism again. Turns out, I just needed a break from the industry to learn that it's what I really want to do with my life.

If I didn't take a break from journalism and move to Los Angeles to pursue a different career, I would have never realized that journalism is my true passion.

Even though it didn't work out, I don't have to constantly wonder, 'What if?'

Regrets are a part of life but now I don't have to wonder what could have happened if I moved to Los Angeles and tried my hand at something new. Instead, I get to look back at a time in my life when I took a chance. Ten or 15 years down the road, I don't have to regret not making that choice.

Yes, the best-laid plans often don't go according to plan, but I learned that's OK.

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