New York City is costly, even for someone with a paycheck. When you are searching for work, those costs become even more painful.
In 2024, roughly a year after my layoff, I faced a hard choice: keep living in NYC, use up my remaining savings, and wait for a job to appear? Or, as a person in their 30s, admit defeat and move back in with my parents in a New England suburb?
My pride resisted the idea. It felt like surrendering and abandoning a piece of my identity. After all, if I was not a stressed, depressed, and unhealthy corporate employee, who was I?
Ultimately, without any promising leads, I could not justify paying to stay and waste time. So in January 2025, I left the big city behind, tail between my legs, and moved home.
Success is about how you frame it
After losing my job, I began to notice how my mental health had been damaged while I was at my former workplace. Beyond the anxiety, hives, and bad habits I had picked up, the biggest loss was my self-belief. Without it, I was drifting.
At the encouragement of people I love, I began working with a career coach, who helped me figure out what I truly wanted to achieve.
My coach urged me to define success in ways that would genuinely make me happier and more satisfied. I knew I did not want to go back to my old role, yet I still felt the pull to chase that level of salary and title, and the recognition I believed it would bring.
More on moving back home
Progress was slower than I expected
Thanks to career coaching, I had hoped things would improve quickly after moving home. But it took another five months before I secured a position. It was part time at a nonprofit, with no benefits or strong pay, but I could not afford to refuse it.
As a newly appointed operations manager, I joined a small team and started building organizational systems, sorting out billing problems, and managing everyday responsibilities. As small wins piled up, I could feel my confidence returning.
Yes, I was still living at home and still did not have a full-time job, but I was discovering that I have a particular skill for stepping into chaos and getting things finished. In fact, I am quite good at it. I simply needed the reminder that I could do it.
I began applying that same energy to parts of my life outside work. I took my health seriously and lost 40 pounds, wrote a rough draft of a book, began dating again, and even planned a short trip to Ireland for my 35th birthday.
I still have less than I did before the layoff, but my life feels far more complete now.
My decision worked out
It has been nearly two years since I moved back home, and I only recently found a full-time job that truly fits me, after rejecting a few options that were too close to my previous role.
To be honest, if I had known how long this path would be when I was laid off, I might not have gotten out of bed. Today, I am thankful that I could not afford to be too proud to do what needed doing.
Who knows? Perhaps one day I will even be able to move out of my parents’ house.