In July, I became one of the tens of thousands of people who chose to uproot their life and relocate to Arizona. Its a popular destination, with the third-highest rate of domestic migration in the country, topped only by Florida and Texas. I loved many things about my life in Southern California, which had been my base for more than eight years, but it was time for a change.

Although my apartment in Burbank charged extremely reasonable rent for the area and was conveniently located, it was small, in an old building with frequent plumbing problems. As a freelancer, Id worked from home for years even before the pandemic, but I traveled frequently. During the COVID lockdowns, it became abundantly clear that I needed more space to function effectively. Throughout the pandemic, many of the things that had tied me to my life in California slowly fell away. Los Angeles started to feel stagnant. Id begun working more in Arizona than California, both in my personal projects and commissioned ones. I frequently wondered why I was paying to live in California while working and spending most of my time in Arizona. I can still visit friends and places I loved in Los Angeles, but day-to-day, my quality of life is better in Tucson.

After traveling regularly between California and Arizona over the last couple of years, I was familiar with the sights along I-10. But just minutes after crossing the border into my new home state, I noticed a new billboard with a clear message: You moved to Arizona for more freedom, so dont vote like you did in California.