And Wash This West Coast Dreaming From My Eyes

by snaggle at 12:22 AM on October 02, 2004

One month ago today I arrived in Los Angeles, fresh-faced and eager. Now, I'm still fresh-faced and eager, and employed! The past three weeks of work have been good — so far, I've done a lot of web work, but I hope to be able to do some print & identity work soon.

Adjusting to being in Los Angeles has been interesting. I'm quite a traveler, so I expected the difference between Iowa and California. When I lived in Rome for a semester, there was quite the culture shock experience... generally, culture shock progresses in 4 stages: 1. honeymoon, 2. adjustment, 3. depression, 4. acceptance.

This week has been stage 3. The first few days of this week, I was overcome by the fact that I have very few friends in this city. Apart from my 4 coworkers, I know 3 people. I can barely make it from my house to the supermarket. And going out requires quite a bit of effort, not to mention the fact that there's nowhere within walking distance - nothing like home in Ames.

The thing is, is that in Ames I very much had a 'big fish in little pond' mentality – I knew everyone, everyone knew me, I got free drinks, free food, and everyone loved me. Here, while everyone is more friendly in general than New York City, it's still more of an anonymous place. I could be anything, anyone...

I have an opportunity to reinvent myself. Yet you know what? It's not that I need to reinvent myself. It's only that I need to open myself up to the possibilities of life here. I'm told that this city will eat alive those that don't know themselves, so I must learn myself well enough to be here.

A toast, to myself and everyone in my situation: to the journey.