Being in Los Angeles
I love giving people I care about what I call the “hometown tour”: taking them around the two cities that shaped me into who I am today, New York and Los Angeles. They define totally different eras in my life. I was pretty young living in New York, from a couple months old up until I was 13, learning to navigate public transportation on my own and how to correctly identify stranger danger. Truthfully, it was a great place to be a kid. Every bodega owner would give me a little treat with my grilled cheese order, and the coffee truck I always saw near my parents’ office would hand me a croissant when I came down to order my mom a latte. You were greeted with smiling faces in the midst of a heated conversation, a breath of fresh air amid perpetually annoyed adults inhabiting the city. These are the people who shaped my methods of communication, my displays of affection, and my general impatience.
Los Angeles was my home from high school through college, my formative years. I learned pretty quickly that people in LA don’t speak like East Coasters. They prefer to be nice at all costs, not rocking the boat too much. We don’t do that in New York - sometimes there’s no reason to be nice, however, I find that we New Yorkers are very kind. We’ll help you find your keys when you dropped them a couple blocks away, but we’ll inevitably say, “How could you lose your keys?” Just a little bit of a slap on the wrist as we pick them up off the sidewalk and place them in your palm.
Genuinely, I feel I blossomed in Los Angeles. I found my personal style, developed a love of the outdoors and being active, and had the pleasure of escaping to fresh air way more than I could growing up in Manhattan. It was a nice change of pace from the constant grind of the Big Apple. And while I still absolutely hate being late to anything, I think my time in LA chilled me out enough to not lose my head every time I’m stuck on the train longer than anticipated. Los Angeles, like any city, has its pros and cons. My time there was filled with so many lovely memories of my mom that it’s hard to see the cons sometimes.
When I have the opportunity to tour my midwestern family around Los Angeles, I always take it. This time, I was lucky enough to take my boyfriend’s youngest sister Rachel. We hit all my old stomping grounds, exploring the Getty Center, UCLA’s campus, and all throughout Malibu. It’s special to show people you care about the places you love. I loved saying, “This is where my mom taught me how to surf”, or “This is where I had a terrible date”. It’s all parts of your life that have made you, you. And so many parts of LA have really made me, me.
In high school, I discovered a love of photography, and I got to flex that muscle on our trip with my admittedly shitty but oh-so-cute digital camera. Below are some photos I took while we were there.
