- Ariel Francois moved to Dallas from the Miami metropolitan area for work.
- She’s been living in Dallas since 2022 and told BI how it compares to life in Florida.
- She thinks it’s more affordable for people her age than living in South Florida.
Arielle Francois, 24, would tell her past self that it was natural to feel anxious about moving from South Florida to Dallas.
The movement is 2022 began without any idea what her “first adult job” would be. François had to figure out rent, finances, how to meet people, and all the other necessities of life in a city and state she’d never been to before.
“At first I didn’t feel any excitement or joy because it was a new city for me,” François told Business Insider.
She lives with her family in the Miami metropolitan area and attended college in Florida. François moved to Florida from Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.
Fast forward to the end of 2021, and she had to consider relocating to Texas to accept a job offer to join PMG’s program, which required her to relocate. She told BI that she only had a short amount of time to “find a place to live, learn about Dallas, and figure out if I wanted to move to Dallas.”
Francois majored in criminal justice, but was exposed to digital marketing work as a side job during college and changed his interest toward graduation. “This program is specifically designed for graduate students who want to start a career in digital marketing.” She said:
After successfully completing the program, she now works as a Digital Marketer on PMG’s Influencer Marketing team.
Francois is one of many people who moved to the Dallas metropolitan area in 2022. Between July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2022, the number of people who moved to the Dallas area from other parts of the U.S. exceeded the number of people who moved out of the Dallas area by nearly 91,600, according to Census Bureau data.
“I think Dallas is going to grow,” Francois said.
François believes living in Dallas has several benefits, including more visibility and opportunities as a content creator. With more Baby Boomers retiring or leaving full-time work while more Gen Zers are entering full-time work, François spoke to BI about his advice for those uprooting their lives and moving to a new place.
Use social media
François advises others considering a move to do their research, and she has also found social media to be helpful during the move, not only to find out what life is like in your new destination, but also as a way to connect with people.
For example, Francois said he used Smart City to find a place to live, a service that connects him with “locators who can help you find the apartment of your choice in the location of your choice.” Francois said, “I found out about it through Dallas locals I reached out to on social media while researching. This highlights the importance of seeking advice from locals and utilizing social media during the moving process.”
“I think social media is a great place to discover cities because there are so many content creators making amazing content about the good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly of cities,” she said.
Beyond just scrolling through social media posts and apartment sites, you also need to consider rent prices and costs.
“I encourage you to budget and save as much as you can – your future self will thank you,” she told other Gen Zers living alone for the first time, including not spending too much on furniture and buying second-hand, she added.
Moving to a new city also means figuring out how to make friends, and François said to remember that some people may have just moved to the area and are looking for new friends.
“Making friends can be intimidating, but platforms like Facebook and The Nudge have plenty of social groups that organize social events and provide lists of activities in your city,” she told BI. “Social media is also a great way to meet new people and discover local events.”
How does her life in Dallas compare to Florida?
“I think what I like most about the city of Dallas is definitely how friendly and open everyone is,” Francois said about Dallas.
She said one of her favorite things to do in the area is go out with coworkers, such as going to her first baseball game with a coworker.
Francois feels Dallas is a better place to live as a content creator than Miami: “In South Florida, there are so many creative people — models, artists, content creators — that my visibility was very limited,” she says.
Meanwhile, in Dallas, she feels like she’s gotten more visibility as a creator, and “there are actually more opportunities here,” she says. “For example, I get invited to a lot of creator events in Dallas hosted by brands that I personally use. Now that I’m getting more visibility as a creator, I really feel like a creator just being treated like one.”
Francois also said he feels it’s more affordable for people his age to live in Dallas than in South Florida. At press time, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment was $2,700 in Miami and about $1,400 in Dallas, according to Zillow data.
Francois, who didn’t have a roommate while living in Dallas, paid about $1,600 a month in rent, including fees, for his first apartment in Dallas. He moved to a new building earlier this year, where he’s paying more than $1,800 a month.
“I have everything I need,” she said of her current home, “and it was worth the increased rent for me, but that’s not necessarily the case for everyone.”
Plus, she finds Dallas quieter than Miami. “When I lived there, I remember people saying, ‘I live where you vacation,'” Francois said.
“If you want to party, you go to Florida. But if you want to party, I don’t think Dallas is the city for that,” Francois said, “but I’m totally comfortable living in a place like that, spiritually, professionally and in every other way.”
Though she misses being close to the beach, her personal benefit of living in Dallas is being able to experience different seasons and changeable weather.
“I grew up in the Caribbean, so I’m used to sunny weather and basically summer all year round,” Francois says, “so I really love seeing the seasons change in Dallas.”
She also misses Florida’s Haitian community, and said that if she had a craving for Haitian food, it would be hard to find in Dallas.
“South Florida is very close to Haiti, so there’s a lot of Haitian people in South Florida,” she says, “so when I moved to Florida, I didn’t feel like I was far from home because there are a lot of Haitian restaurants and Haitian churches. And South Florida also has Little Haiti, so Haitian culture is very ingrained there.”
Combining what she misses about South Florida with the benefits of being in Dallas, Francois said she would tell her past self preparing to move that it’s normal to feel nervous because “change is uncomfortable” and that she’s anxious about experiencing this new chapter in her life alone.
“It’s okay to feel how you feel, but if you knew what’s on the other side of that fear and anxiety, you’d be wiping away your tears and starting to pack up in no time,” she said.
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