On January 13th at 5:00 in the morning, my mom and I got in my very packed cherry red Chevy Aveo (it was surprising how much it could hold!!!!) and started the trip to my future home—sunny Redondo Beach, California. My sister Rose and our neighbor Leslie Costen saw us off. It was a goodbye full of hugs and tears. Mrs. Costen put a beautiful verse on an index card and taped it in front of the passenger seat. Even now, I have kept the words there to read on days when I’m feeling kind of down. I had a wonderful sendoff because I was with people who were uplifting and encouraging as I started my journey towards achieving my dreams.
(Above: Mom and I in the front seats of my car with the back filled to the top! Photo Credit goes to Rose!)
The trek across the southern part of the United States is definitely one of my favorite trips that I’ve been on. The view in every direction was beautiful and the long spans of time where everywhere we looked was just nature were incredibly peaceful (except the one time we were low on gas and kinda freaking out because we didn’t know where we could find a gas station in the middle of the dessert!) Plus, I got to spend 3 awesome days with my mom and that quality time I will always cherish.
(Mom Behind the Wheel!)
Here are my top 5 lessons/observations from that trip:
1) I am a very lucky person. I am lucky that I could take this trip with my mom and see the beauty of our country up close. We made the whole journey in 3 days so we didn’t get to sight see a lot. However, the opportunity to experience the epic road trip with my mom who took time off of work to join me was an incredible memory. I am also lucky that I am very good at following through with the goals that I have set out for myself. After I took my trip to California for my college graduation gift, I believed that to be successful in film and TV, I should make the big move to try my hand at living in the mecca of the entertainment industy. My goal was to move after I worked at WAVY TV 10 for a year. Just short of a year at WAVY, I arrived in Los Angeles. I am lucky that because of the woman sitting in the car with me (as well as my father and sisters), I have been taught to be strong, determined, and motivated. I’m lucky to have their love and support; especially now as I struggle to job search and deal with huge bouts of homesickness.
2) Make sure you call your bank and not only change your address, but also check in so you know when the change has actually been processed. I had gone to the bank a few days before I had left Virginia to change my billing address to my California one. But, it wasn’t until we got midway through Tennessee that the “change of address” had been processed, and my zip code was no longer from Virginia Beach, but for Redondo Beach. I was in charge of gas for the trip and it was incredibly stressful to figure out why the heck my credit card kept getting declined. Thankfully it was all figured out by the next day and the rest of the trip went pretty smoothly money-wise.
(The view from our car: just the road, a few other drivers, and nature)
3) Don’t drive through Texas in the middle of the night behind a truck. Not only are 18-wheelers slow…they also have a tendency to spew crazy sized pieces of plastic that are hard to see at night and can get lodged underneath the front grill of your car. It was quite a terrifying event since it involved a loud crunching sound as the object hit the front of my car. My mom was forced to pull over on a road that was completely dark in the middle of the night. Thankfully nothing happened to my car relating to the engine, but I now have a fairly ugly dent which will be there for a little while…or at least until I have a better money situation.
4) I get along with my mom really well…until we are forced into the winding maze and whirl of cars that is LA traffic with me at the wheel at night. Now that I have been here for a bit, I know that it makes everyone CRAZY. However, the general Los Angeles traffic combined with two east coasters who have been in very tight quarters for 3 days straight and just wanted to get to my apartment was a very tense situation. My mom definitely was using the passenger’s side “brake” and as cars and motorcycles whizzed by…both of our voices went up an octave…(once we got to the apartment though and ate something we felt much better).
5) Music, audio books, phone calls to family and friends, and having great company will make time pass much faster and further enhance the experience. I have always loved singing with my mom in the car and it was great to have the chance to do that many times as we crossed the country. Now that I have lived here over 3 months, I have gotten homesick several times. I really miss hearing my mom’s singing voice and feel lucky that I got to hear it for those 3 days. It was also important that we call all of my sisters and my dad to make sure they knew our status on our journey; and that we had made it safely to our hotels each night. It was exciting to tell them that we were on track to making the whole trip in 3 days (especially when people said it was a crazy plan and we did experience some setbacks, but STILL reached our goals). All of our conversations with our family and friends kept us motivated as the miles became monotonous and connected us to those who helped us get ready for the trip.
Sometimes I feel like making this move was completely crazy and not worth being away from my family and friends back in Virginia. But especially since I quit the jobs I had back home and drove the approximately 2,700 miles from Virginia Beach to Los Angeles, I am not ready to give up on my dreams of working in the film and tv industry. Three months is not a very long time at all. I just have to remain patient and put in the work and time it has to take to build up connections and apply for jobs. We made every mile count, I now want to do my best to make every day count.
(My next post will reveal why I ultimately chose LA over New York City–which is one of my favorite places in the world–and it mostly has to do with my awesome sister who has lived out here on her own for 14 years).
Hope you enjoyed this post.
<3, Alanna
every so often... 
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