First Time Solo Living

Have you ever had to reintroduce yourself to the city you lived in all your life?

I found myself having to move out of my ADU in the summer on 2024 and felt lost until I found this 565 square foot studio apartment in North Portland that looked like the perfect new start. When people tell you that living on your own really make you figure out who you are as a person, they are not lying.

In this issue we are going to be discussing all things from the usual Devyn’s Favorites to topics of loneliness. I was not prepared for the type of loneliness I was going to experience when first moving in on my own. I never really had to settle with my own thoughts because there was an always a something or someone to distract me. But the amount of self-reflection I was washed over with every time I came back to my apartment became overwhelming to the point where I needed to take control of my life again and set up routines for myself to really get out this funk.

Along with my passages of melancholy, I got the privilege to have a conversation with another Portland-based interior designer, Andee Hess, founder of Osmose Design. Best known for her local work on the Oaks Park Skating Rink and The Tomorrow Theater. I got to speak with her about her surrealist approach to design, being raised in Portland and putting herself through design school.