The Bachelor bachelorette Susie Evans has revealed why she decided to leave Virginia and move to Los Angeles in 2023.
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Susie uploaded a new blog posting on Wednesday, December 28 titled "2022 in Reflection."
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After discussing her time on The Bachelor and the demise of her relationship with Season 26 star Clayton Echard, Susie narrowed in on present day and what's in store for her in 2023.
"I decided that come January 2023, I am going to move to L.A.," Susie wrote.
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Susie revealed how her business as a wedding videographer picked up after she appeared on ABC's The Bachelor earlier this year.
"I was traveling all around Virginia for work. I am so beyond grateful because although I had a season full of wedding work in Virginia, the show brought interest to my business from a much wider audience and I was given the opportunity to travel for wedding videography," Susie shared.
"I saw some pretty incredible places and got to meet some wonderful people. I was getting a taste of the travel wedding work and I loved what I experienced! I started to feel empowered to branch out into new interests and styles of photography and videography."
Susie explained that instead of viewing videography as a way to make money and pay the bills, she started to feel "fulfilled" and passionate about the work she's doing.
"This year I have felt totally empowered by what I believe my business can become. I see it as a career path in a new light, where I used to see it as a job. I now can see it taking me all over the country and even the world," Susie wrote.
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"I feel inspired to find new ways to share others’ stories through film and I am feeling entirely grateful."
Susie cited this "newfound inspiration" for her job as the reason she's moving to California.
"I can't begin to tell you guys how exciting it is to have this newfound... belief in myself to pursue video and photography in a way I never saw for myself before. So much so that... [I want to] try to make it something bigger than it already is," Susie explained.
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The Bachelor fans began to suspect there was trouble in paradise between Susie and Clayton in August, when Clayton revealed on an episode of Amanda Hirsch's "Not Skinny But Not Fat" podcast that the couple had decided to stop living together and planned to move to different states.
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Clayton -- who had moved to Virginia Beach to be with Susie in Spring 2022 after The Bachelor concluded in March -- chose Scottsdale, AZ, as his new home, and Susie considered relocating to Los Angeles.
Clayton has been living with his brother in Scottsdale and said he plans to buy a house there in 2023, but Susie never made the jump and moved.
"I decided I would make the move a few months ago but after my break up with Clayton, I felt it would be best for me personally to stay with family through the holidays in Virginia and give myself a fresh start in January 2023 in a new city with new goals," Susie wrote in her blog.
Susie said she is "incredibly excited to move to a new city in 2023," but that doesn't mean she hasn't loved and appreciated her time at home.
"I can't even describe how special it has been to be home in Virginia the last couple of years," Susie noted.
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"I spent a vast majority of my young adult life far away from home. I went to college across the country, I lived in Tokyo for a few years, worked on a travel team during my time in corporate and after a while, Virginia stopped feeling like my home base and more like a place I stopped in to catch up with my family."
Susie said being with her family in her actual hometown for several months "served" her "wonderfully in ways I will cherish for the rest of my life."
While Susie has matured and grown so much in the last year, she said there is "still so much" to experience as she heads into 2023.
"I am feeling very ambitious and optimistic heading into this new year that my business will continue to evolve and become something I can pour into," Susie told her readers.
"I am excited to share with you all my adventures as I take on L.A. and continue to grow this community with each of you."
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Susie recently said that she's "definitely open to dating" again but wants to ease her way into her next relationship.
"I haven't gone out on a date yet but mostly because every time it comes up my armpits start sweating... and still banking on finding out I'm actually a long lost princess and I can't date anything but royalty anyways," Susie joked with one fan in an Instagram Q&A session earlier this month.
Susie also confirmed she doesn't currently have a boyfriend, although she revealed she's already developed a crush on a guy.
As for what she's looking for in a partner, Susie said her "type" is not athletic men like Clayton and "compatibility is so huge in relationships" to her. She said she wants her personality and lifestyle to mesh well with her man's goals.
The wedding videographer explained to Us Weekly that she plans to date a man in private for a while before sharing her relationship with the world considering a romance becomes more complicated in the public eye.
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Susie therefore isn't jumping at the chance to appear on Bachelor in Paradise's eighth season next summer.
"Hopefully I've got a partner of my own by then," Susie told a fan in her recent Q&A.
Susie fell hard and fast for Clayton on The Bachelor's 26th season, but the couple went through a lot of ups and downs, including a shocking finale dumping in which Susie had rejected Clayton's final rose.
Susie and Clayton reconciled in the real world and fell in love, but they announced their split in September.
Clayton and Susie explained how they broke up because neither person felt stable or fully emotionally supported in the relationship due to their insecurities and outside pressure from Bachelor Nation to be a perfect couple.
Clayton shared how it felt nearly impossible to pour into his relationship with Susie when he didn't even know what he wanted out of life and where his future was headed.
The couple also confirmed how dealing with backlash from Bachelor Nation -- including death threats sent to Clayton -- was a big factor in why they had issues and ultimately parted ways.
"I was trying to figure out what my next step was [and] I started questioning who I was because of all the negativity," Clayton said.
He added, "I started to believe some of what was being said about me. And I now look back at it and realize, like, I couldn't be that stable, secure man that I needed to be to really be able to give my all in a relationship."
Clayton said he felt the need to rehab his image and please others, all the while trying to get over death threats and handle problems in his relationship, such as wrongly being accused of cheating on Susie.
The pair recently became friends again, with Clayton asking Susie to read and edit a draft of his new book.
Clayton teased last month there's a possibility he and Susie may get back together down the road, but Susie said earlier this month she's ready to date again and "would do on a date tomorrow" if she could.
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Clayton also arrived at the conclusion he and Susie just aren't each other's "person."
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