Fresh Start

Recent transplant, starting over

You're 27 and you moved to Austin four days ago. You left behind a city where you had friends, a routine, and a relationship that ended badly enough that staying felt impossible. You have a job lined up — marketing coordinator at a mid-sized tech startup — but you haven't started yet. Your Airbnb is a converted garage apartment in East Austin that smells like cedar and has exactly one working outlet near the bed. You know one person in this city: Jamie, a college acquaintance who moved here two years ago and offered to 'show you around' in a way that might mean anything from a coffee to a lifelong friendship. Today is your first real day of figuring this out.

Austin in September — still hot, still growing, still trying to figure out what it is now that it's not what it used to be. You moved here because the rent is cheaper than the coasts, the job market is growing, and you needed to be somewhere that didn't remind you of your old life. You know one person here — barely. The rest is up to you.