A City Of Romantic Notions

I live in a city of romantic notions.

I am surrounded by people who moved here to chase a fanciful idea.

From the outside, Los Angeles is a sparkling city full of beautiful and famous people, palm trees, mansions in the hills, and an endless supply of new juice cleanses. Before you move here, you watch videos on the internet where you hear movie stars reminisce about the period in their lives that they lived in their car as if it were summer camp.

I was one of those people. I moved to LA with wide eyes, $300, a car full of stuff, no job, and nowhere to live. But I'll be damned if I wasn't going to make it in this city.

When I arrived, I didn't get a convertible or a tan or a ticket to the next screening of the summer's hottest blockbuster. Instead, I found a one bedroom apartment on craiglist and moved in with two other girls. I nannied for a family who chose not to speak English to me. I ate twenty cent ramen noodles with a side of iceburg lettuce. I had nightmares about how I was going to pay my rent.

And then, I got what I thought was my dream job as an assistant at a TV network. Man, was I living the life... for a month or two. But around the second month, the romantic notions wore off. I realized that my dream job of creating television looked a lot like answering phone calls and scheduling meetings and sitting in a cubicle behind a computer screen. For others, that romantic notion wears off when they realize that their dream job requires 16 hour days of a film set, not having time for a personal life or really for anything but work and sleep.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am by no means saying that I dislike my job or that what we do isn't worth it. Because it totally is and we love it... at least most of the time.

But what I am saying is this. Behind every romantic notion is real life. A notion, by definition, is a vague or imperfect idea of something. It is not grounded in real life. It does not take into account the mundane and the difficult. In fact, romantic notions flee as soon as real commitment is involved. But when we realize that real life can be better than romantic notions and that finding joy in the mundane is better than running away anytime something becomes boring, we will find the life we wanted.

So, to all the people who are dreaming of greener pastures. Don't be fooled by the romantic notion that somewhere else - be it Los Angeles or Europe or Missoula, Montana - is going to solve all of your problems. If you're dreaming of going somewhere, then go! But don't think that you'll get there and be greeted by anything but yourself and real life when the romance wears off.