★ “How To Live In San Francisco For A Short Period Of Time”

Thought Catalog:

San Francisco is a city where the beautiful and ugly coexist. The projects are situated next to a multi-million dollar Full House home. You’ll pay $1300 a month in rent in the Mission for a view of two crackheads shooting up in an alleyway. This unlikely marriage of destitute poverty and bourgie princess creates a tension in the city that is alternately terrifying and exhilarating.

and

Be shocked by how much weed is smoked  in San Francisco. It’s perhaps more popular than smoking cigarettes. Understand that everyone is on drugs in San Francisco, but they’re also a weird health nut. People take bong rips and go to yoga. They’ll do hallucinogens and then go on the Master Cleanse to purify their body. This contradictory lifestyle may be confusing but you can’t really question it. After all, this is San Francisco. People pay high rents to be…high.

and

Know that your time here is running out. You want to move to Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles or New York. You just need a change. San Francisco can’t be the last stop for you. Promise yourself that you’ll move back eventually when you’re older and want something more mellow, and 70% believe it. When you tell people you lived in San Francisco, they will say “OMG, I’ve just always loved that city. I feel like I could live there.” The city gets no bad reviews from visitors. You mention L.A. or New York and some people will be like. “Nope. Not for me.” San Francisco, however, always elicits a positive response. Laugh to yourself because you know these people will never live there. They just saw it in movies and pop culture like you did and fell in love with it. To live in San Francisco is to know the complete clashing picture. You loved it though. You’re going to move back at, like, 30. Yeah. That sounds like a good age to live in San Francisco. 30.

There’s more but these three lines really spoke to me the most. I can’t stand San Francisco anymore. I didn’t make many meaningful life-long friendships there. There are only 2 people in my 2.5 years there that I still talk with on a monthly basis. The rest of the people there are just passing by on my social network feeds. That’s not a friendship. That’s a connection.

So, I made no money and lost more than I made, I had to deal with being stalked, attacked and nearly beaten up, I lost the woman I planned on marrying (due to my depression of failing so much again and again with each new idea and the dangers of AdamsBlock which tore us apart) and I never once had a day where things just were “perfect”. Too many people, too much noise, too expensive, no space and the CA government not doing anything for its citizens other than raising taxes every single day.

It was a mess but I keep saying I’ll move back when I’m 30 and give it another shot. I have to try again. There is something special about San Francisco even though I hate the thought of living there ever again.

…I still plan on living in Seattle though. yeah, that’ll be so much better!

Sigh.