Ok,

So I’ve been living in Los Angeles for six years now! Wow! Time just flies when your having fun, or surviving is how I feel personally. How do I feel about Los Angeles? Hmmm… very love/hate relationship. There are aspects about Hollywood you can’t get anywhere else. There are also things about the city most people will never encounter. It’s a tough place period. People are struggling to make ends meet, pay the bills, and keep up in this never-ending rat race. As a young person growing up in Los Angeles, I know personally, it’s an easy place to loose yourself. People desperately want the answer and solution to all their problems, and are often willing to pay an arm and leg to do so. If you don’t know yourself, you can easily cash in to adopt someone’s belief system, praying it will work out for you as it did for them. It’s also a money-making city. “Well, besides you sending me out,  how can I get myself out there?” I ask my agent. “Casting Director workshops.” She answers. “But those cost money!” I naively protest. ” Honey, welcome to Los Angeles.” She answers kindly. Narcissism is emphasized, competition is fierce, and people constantly thrive on one-upping one another.

Now, to some, I may sound pessimistic, negative, and judgmental. I get it. I understand. But as a person, if you meant me, I’m known to others as friendly, kind, positive, talented, honest, with a big, warm heart. My heart has helped me in many ways, and led me to several lucky breaks. However, as a kid growing up here, it made me vulnerable, naive, and led me into some pretty crappy situations that I genuinely feel would not have happened had I lived somewhere else. It’s a cold city. I’ve had many moments when everything in my life went dark, I only had one or two people who stuck by me. When Everything in life was great, you bet your bottom I had everybody in my life and then some! When your exposed to that, being so young, yes it can make you very cynical and wary of people afterwards. 

Not that I wasn’t fair-warned. My best friend at the time took a special trip with me down to Los Angles, really showing me how it is, to warn me about moving to this city. I almost didn’t come. But something in me had to discover this big bad place. And I did it. Oh boy! Was I thrown around or what! But, at the same token, by encountering so many rough obstacles and seemingly impossible situations, I was challenged to hold onto myself. Only my spirit and goodness could have enabled me to survive. Los Angeles, in all of its badness and falsities gave me the greatest gift in the world. It forced me to discover who I truly am in the face of adversity. A friend of mine once referred to Los Angles as the wild wild west. And he was right. It truly is.