Northern Departure

So I have recently made the very difficult decision to move to L.A.

After living in Massachusetts, Norway, and Minnesota, L.A. will be more than a departure from the ordinary. It will be a departure from friends, family, seasons, skiing, and an earthquake-free home. There are countless things that I will miss about about the north. And the good thing is, that if I miss them too much, I can always move back.

But, to my anxious, semi-adventurous personality, I need to find out if I can make it as a writer. And it just happens that TV writing gets done in LA.

You know that movie that you've seen about a hundred times, but never finished it? You've seen bits and pieces, but for some reason, never in completion? For me, that movie was High Fidelity. A movie about a complaining, relationship-killing, solipsistic guy living in Chicago. And it wasn't until last month (when I started my rent-and-burn DVD borrowing initiative from the local library) that I finally saw the whole movie through from start to finish.

And as I watched Rob Gordon, drenched in rain (a metaphorical film technique that was beaten like a dead horse in that movie*), ambling from one doomed relationship to another, he poignantly said something that was exactly what I needed to hear.

"I always had one foot out the door, and that prevented me from doing a lot of things, like thinking about my future and... I guess it made more sense to commit to nothing, keep my options open. And that's suicide. By tiny, tiny increments."

One of the truest things I've heard. So off I go, in the hopes that commitment will open more doors than it closes. And for this all to work, all I need is a job, a place to live, and some money to get started in time for classes. In four weeks.


*That could be the first time I've used a double-metaphor.