2 Years in Los Angeles

This is my second and final letter written as a citizen of Los Angeles. If all goes according to plan, I should begin hiking the Pacific Crest trail at the US/Mexican border in April of next year and be back in Seattle by early October. The next eight months will be both exhilarating and filled with anxiety. I will be exploring that topic more in the future. Instead, I would like to use this annual letter to reflect on my time in the City of Angels.

Despite the challenges, I will never regret choosing to move to LA. I wanted something bigger for my life. I needed new opportunities. I had to shake things up. Over the course of two years, I did all that and more. Los Angeles allowed me to spread my nonprofit wings and get a better sense of how other organizations are operated. While the work of Skid Row Housing Trust has been the most challenging of my life and I won’t walk away from here filled with the same emotions that came to define my time at Kent Youth and Family Services, I will leave here a better leader and with a better sense of who I am. This work has also afforded me an opportunity to get my financial house in order. For the first time in my life, I am saving and planning for the future. It took a long time to get here, but I am immensely proud of myself.

This financial stability has opened the door to something I have wanted to do for a long time; hike the Pacific…