Senior year of college is wrapping up and you may feel stuck and wonder what’s next. Do you look for a job close to home so you can squat under your parents’ roof until you make a decent salary? Or do you follow your childhood dreams of moving to California and rough it out as a waiter before you’re discovered as the next big thing?To go or not to go, that is the question. Some of the best advice I’d gotten after graduation was to not let my job dictate where I live, if I can afford it. If you’re anything like me and are feeling the post-grad itch to up and go, here’s some advice to take into consideration before making the big move. Figure out where you want to live.  Unless you plan on living life on the road, ripping through the countryside in your VW beetle you’ve dubbed the Blue Breezy, it’s wise to have a plan. Make a list of the top five cities you could see yourself living in and do your research. Look up the average price of a one-bedroom apartment, use CareerRelocate to find out where your career skills are in demand, and compare salary figures for each place.

Find a place you can afford.  Once you’ve narrowed down where you want to live, make sure you can live there comfortably. You don’t want to move to a new city and realize all your savings or salary is going towards rent each month. You want to have some spending money left over to explore, have some fun, and buy yourself groceries. What’s love got to do with it? Don’t move somewhere for love—unless you think you’ll be happy there if/when the relationship ends. I’ve heard stories of coworkers and friends who ditched their jobs and comfortable living situations because they fell in love. Sadly, not many of these stories have a happy ending. It doesn’t mean you won’t have a happy ending but do you really want to end up working in a town you hate with constant reminders of a relationship that went sour? Factor in your friends.  It’s always nice to have a support system when starting over in a new city.  Reach out to your network and friends and see who’s living where.

Starting over isn’t nearly as hard when you have friends near by. If you’re interested in moving but aren’t sure what cities to consider, in no particular order, here’s Coed Magazine’s list of 10 best cities for college grads. Seattle, WA Median Income: $33,372 Median Monthly Rent: $942Double Shower Curtain Rod White San Francisco, CA Median Income: $38,448 Median Monthly Rent: $1,259Wheels And Tires Configurator Omaha, NE Median Income: $27,075 Median Monthly Rent: $711Can You Lose Weight Hungry Girl Recipes Colorado Springs, CO Median Income: $26,977 Median Monthly Rent: $802 Charlotte, NC Median Income: $28,386 Median Monthly Rent: $774 Washington, DC Median Income: $40,952 Median Monthly Rent: $1,226

New York, N.Y. Median Income: $34,039 Median Monthly Rent: $1,072 Boston, MA Median Income: $36,174 Median Monthly Rent: $1,112 Philadelphia, PA Median Income: $30,974 Median Monthly Rent: $895 Baltimore, MD Median Income: $32,994 Median Monthly Rent: $972Seattle Gemologists Import Pearls, Build Family Legacy Countless finished pieces traded hands at this year’s Tucson gem and mineral shows; among them were a handful of pearl and gemstone bead necklaces fashioned by an up-and-coming designer from Seattle: 6-year-old Amadea Oba. Oba was arguably the youngest entrepreneur at the shows, but her 3-year-old brother, Avery, is hot on her heels. He’s already learning to shake pearls through sieves to sort them by millimeter size, say the pair’s parents, Yoshizumi “Yoshi” and Jessica Oba. The elder Obas, owners of pearl importer Y.K. Trading, both graduated from GIA’s Santa Monica campus with Graduate Gemologist diplomas in November 1995. Though the pair was originally scheduled to have different start dates, timelines changed and they ended up in the same classroom.

Jessica Oba recalls meeting a polite young Japanese man her first day; her now-husband jokes that he knew right away they would be a good fit. “Jessica was the best student in the class and I was the worst, so I knew I had to grab her,” Oba says. “I wasn’t really planning to meet my future wife at GIA – it must have been fate.” Yoshi Oba grew up surrounded by the pearl industry in his hometown of Kobe, Japan. His father owned a pearl company, and Oba remembers hearing his father’s colleagues talk about GIA. Even as a young man, he says he noticed the respect a Graduate Gemologist diploma commanded among those in the industry. Oba decided as a teenager that he would one day move to the United States and open his own business. He knew pearls, but wanted to learn more about other gemstones and other aspects of the jewelry industry. His first order of business was to learn English, so in 1990, Oba left Japan for his “adopted hometown” of Seattle, Washington.

Jessica Oba – lacking any family connection to the jewelry industry – had a lifelong interest in gems. Her first job, as a high school student in Oxnard, California, was working at a gift boutique that specialized in sterling silver and gemstone jewelry. Her curiosity was further piqued by the experience, and when an attentive manager handed her a GIA brochure, she enrolled in the Institute’s distance education courses. Jessica Oba used her earnings from her high school retail job to continue coursework through her first post-graduation job with a fine jewelry store in nearby Camarillo, California. “The correspondence work was satisfying and rewarding,” she says, “but I really longed to have the on-campus experience.” So she moved to Santa Monica in May 1995 – where she met her future husband and business partner. The couple moved to Seattle immediately after graduation in 1996. Yoshi Oba founded Y.K. Trading, and Jessica Oba accepted a job offer with a colored stone wholesaler.

They married two years later, and Jessica Oba came on board to help build the family business. Today, Y.K. Trading imports from Japan, China and Tahiti, and carries several types of pearls, including Japanese Akoya, Chinese freshwater, Tahitian and South Sea. Their primary customers are other small businesses, such as independent jewelry stores, designers and wholesale repair shops. They sometimes do specialty contract work – Jessica Oba strings pearls for other dealers, while Yoshi Oba drills and sorts large lots for other companies. Their business works with a true international community, so Jessica Oba says their GIA experience comes into play regularly. “The skills you learn at GIA are invaluable,” she says. “It provides a bit of shorthand when meeting other graduates – you instantly know there is this shared well of knowledge, and that increases your confidence when dealing with colleagues and clients.” If their children’s early interest in the family business is any indication, the Obas may soon be using that gemological “shorthand” at home.