Look, I am gonna be honest with you. Moving to LA was so not what I had imagined it to be. I really had no idea what I was in for. I thought my life would look something like this:
Develop a cool LA aesthetic
Quickly become a famous blogger
Brunch every weekend
Malibu on Saturday's
Day trips to Santa Barbara
Being able to see my other Cali friends from home weekly
Oh boy was I wrong. I would say the most unglamorized part of living in LA would be the dorm life. However, I knew this when I signed up for living in the social dorm. My character has definitely been tested, especially when you are showering and the shower FLOODS! So gross. Anyways, there are a lot of other things that I have learned so far, so let me get started.
For starters, LA is not like my hometown, in a lot of ways, but especially in regards to traffic. You cannot drive from one place to another in a timely manner. That movie, La La Land, where they get out of the car on the 405 and dance around in the standstilll traffic is a fairly accurate representation of transportation in LA, except the dancing. There is no dancing on top or around cars on the highway, just angry people feeling the need to honk their horns, as if it will speed up traffic.
Secondly, to get to Malibu in under an hour is not possible. My thought process of a "quick trip to Malibu" is actually like a four hour excursion at least (round trip). The drive there is so long that even when you are tired and ready to go home, you feel obligated to stay a little longer. In other words hanging in Malibu every Saturday is not realistic, which brought me to realize that Santa Barbara day trips would be a stretch, to say the least, which is heartbreaking, because that place is literal serotonin.
Next, LA is expensive. There is literally no way around it. An uber, a REGULAR uber, is $30 to get literally anywhere, one way. Then, get this, gas is $5.00 PER GALLON. Like what!?!? I miss filling up my tank in Indiana, when it was $2.89. Oh, the good days. A workout class in LA is expensive too, some of the classes I attended were $40 for one hour. What about those great hikes though? Why spend money when you can just go hiking? Well, you have to get to the hike, and that costs an uber ride. So... we go to the gym on campus, which I have grown to love actually. There is amazing equipment AND workout classes there!
My LA aesthetic? Lets say its a work in progress. It is much harder to change your aesthetic than I thought. It is also expensive, unless you are good at thrifting, which I am getting better at, but still not super good. My friend, Lauren, is so good at thrifting. She found the COOLEST thrifting finds like so fast. Maybe we will interview her for a "How To Thrift Like A Pro" post for all of us interested in figuring that out.
Did my fashion blog take off? Hardly, but I am working on it, so I will keep you updated. But did I even have to say that? Come on, you know the answer to that.
I have not gotten so see my friends from home as much as I would like, but I hope that I can change that around this semester, even if it is just for like catching up over coffee.
I truly believe that this experience, while challenging at times, has been WAY better than any expectations I might have had. In all honesty, I am not sure if these were expectations, or just the way that I thought people in LA lived on a daily basis. I now see that such a lifestyle is unrealistic, and the tv show Selling Sunset is not a lifestyle that everyone who lives here has. I have to say, even though day trips to Santa Barbara and Saturdays in Malibu sound pretty good to me, I would not change the experience that I have had out here for anything. I have absolutely loved my time in LA. I mean, I made so many best/life long friends out here. What more could I ask for?
xx,
sunshine !
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