For now, I’m living with my mom in upstate New York, somewhere between Poughkeepsie, NY and Danbury, CT. My mom has several health conditions, including chronic pain and memory impairment, that my sister and I have been helping her manage. I’ve known for over half of my time in California that I’ve wanted to leave, but I felt like I would never do anything to make it happen — that I was stuck. I’ve rearranged some important aspects of my life to work better with my priorities, but also, I have ways of mitigating the downsides of living in a rural area that I didn’t have when I was in high school, like having the familiarity and resources to get on an airplane.