Author Spotlight
Allison Wilcox
During April of her senior year, Adelaine Marrone sat at home scrolling through Care.com looking for a nanny job that she could have after she graduated high school. Instead of staying near KC like nearly 90% of her friends, Marrone, 2019 East alum, wanted to move to a big city, regardless of how far away it was. She wasn’t looking for nanny jobs in Kansas City — she wanted to be in Los Angeles.
Her online search failed, but a family Marrone had occasionally babysat for over the past year offered her a live-in nanny job — and they happened to be moving to LA in July of 2019. A month later, she packed her suitcase and began living with the single-dad and his seven-year-old twins so he could pursue his acting career in Hollywood.
Moving to LA, a city with a population eight times the size of KC, Marrone traded her comfortable midwestern lifestyle and adapted to big city life. She decided the move was the change after high school she was looking for — the LA traffic and buzz in the crowded streets were worth it, even if it meant saying goodbye to some of her closest friends back home.
Even without her friends Marrone has come to love LA and claims that aside from going to movies and having picnics with the kids, the city environment is what she’s enjoyed most.
“I love the city and the atmosphere,” Marrone said. “I like being outside a lot, so one thing about it is you get the city, and you get the beach and the mountains. There’s no time where you can be bored — there’s always something to do.”
Marrone was excited to live a new life in a big city like LA, but late night drives around the Plaza with Brock Hampton pouring out the windows would be a hard experience to get in LA traffic. Besides aching for ice cream runs to the nearest Andy’s with her friends, Marrone was worried about being in a new city surrounded by unfamiliar people.
“It was honestly terrifying because I moved out here completely on my own,” Marrone said. “I didn’t have any friends out here. It was kind of scary going to a place where I didn’t have anybody and not necessarily knowing the city.”
While her experience has been positive, her mom, Charity Marrone, was worried about whether or not moving to LA was the best plan.
“At first I thought it was not a feasible idea,” Charity said. “It was kind of outlandish to think that she could go to LA. From everything I had heard LA was really expensive, hard to move to and not really 18-year-old appropriate most of the time.”
After all the housing details unfolded and the job information was clear, Charity felt comfortable making the decision to send Adelaine across the country since they both were familiar with the family.
Marrone has enjoyed developing friendships with new people while strengthening her relationship with the family she’s been living with. Babysitting in KC, Marrone was not incredibly close with the family, but after spending more time together they have grown closer by swinging at the park and celebrating special occasions like birthdays with them.
Living in their guest house, Marrone was immediately welcomed into their family which she said was an incredible start to her life in LA — especially given the sacrifice of leaving her own family behind in KC, leaving communication only to Snapchat and FaceTime. Marrone’s cherished her moments spent with the kids going to movies and having picnics on the beach.
“I’m just a kid person and I love children and caring for them,” Marrone said. “At this point I feel like they’re my own kids, I love them to death.”
While Marrone sees the kids in the mornings and on weekends, her day doesn’t officially start until 2:15 when she picks the kids up from school and watches them for no more than four hours. In addition to an occasional weekend night, her schedule leaves her with plenty of time for Malibu beach days and daily visits to local coffee shops such as Bluestone Lane.
On the look out for new adventures, Marrone imagined someone would introduce themselves to her at a coffee shop, instantly make conversation and spark a friendship. Although, after a few months Marrone realized LA isn’t quite like the Midwest — people don’t always want to make friends and the culture in meeting people is different, especially since Marrone isn’t in a typical work environment surrounded by people her own age.
After researching “Best ways to make friends in a new city,” Marrone settled on downloading Bumble, a dating app, but selected the version to meet people that were mutually seeking friendships.
Marrone has spent her time with her friends driving down the lit streets to watch cotton-candy sunsets on the beach. Having new friends to share these moments with in LA has made missing her friends in KC a little less painful.
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