5 Years

My 5 year anniversary with Los Angeles is today.

I love this town. I feel blessed for the opportunities I’ve had and the many experiences I’ve encountered, good and bad, that have helped to shape me into a stronger and more mature person.

Around the dinner table the other night was a musician, an advertising exec, a writer, a designer, a video games producer. And me.

We tossed around ideas. We picked apart nuances. We heckled, we gossiped.

I left feeling inspired and renewed.

There’s opportunity in this town and creative people want to connect.

There have been times when I’ve been frustrated. I live in a tiny overpriced apartment. I’m friends with everybody but never quite sure who my real friends are. The traffic can be beyond maddening.

But it’s a fun process getting to wherever I’m meant to be.

I hit Hollywood or Silverlake to see bands play, I meander among gallery openings in Culver City. I travel downtown for fashion shows in dirty warehouses and discover secret speakeasies along the way. I go to beaches in Malibu and somehow find myself at random parties at ridiculous homes. I meet musicians, artists, entrepreneurs, stylists, and acrobats. I receive gift bags with free shampoo.

Creative people are feeling the recession and as a result we’re banding together, somehow knowing that creatives are becoming less fringe and more a part of the mainstream American landscape.

And when it comes down to it, everyone is adapting to change – even my friends and family back in Cleveland.

Here in LA, it’s challenging. You have to work hard to make it happen. Everyday is a fresh start full of possibility.

Plus, that tiny overpriced apartment IS 28 blocks from the ocean. And at least I have a steady supply of free shampoo.