The Plane Ride: A Bridge Between Worlds

I wrote this as I was on the plane from CLT to LAX, just wanted to get my thoughts down before landing in my new home.

A few months ago the director of the Duke in LA program came to my Screenwriting class to pitch the program. I quickly dismissed the idea. I was a Senior, I had things planned for second semester, my whole family, including a new niece and nephew and almost-sister, was nearby, and great friends both at Duke and elsewhere on the East coast. What kind of person picks up and leaves all that behind (if only a few months ahead of schedule)? Who could rock the boat that badly? And as I sat there listening more, I realized: I could. I have always been selfish on a certain level and it's my life, I am the only one who can choose how to live it. I've tried doing it someone else's way, and it didn't make me happy. So I listened, to Jim (the director), to my gut (which has never failed me) and one of my closest friends who helped me realize my friends would all understand and support me, and if not, they weren't really my friends. When she said that, a weight was lifted and I knew my decision had already been made in that classroom when I put my name down on the contact sheet: I was moving to L.A. in January.

The reactions of those who knew me best and/or longest reassured me. Everyone knew this day was coming, and it wasn't much of a surprise that I had found a way to speed it up. I should say that my whole life I have felt like I was waiting for something and it took awhile to realize that I was waiting for this moment, for the chance to pursue the one dream I have always had: move to CA and work in the "business." I was always a California girl at heart, even as a Southerner transplanted in the Northeast and then back down South, I knew that I didn't quite fit in. My heart was in California and it was only a matter of time before my body caught up.

My parents have been great. Incredibly supportive and that meant the world to me. The traumatic experience of buying me a one-way ticket didn't even cause them to ask me to reconsider. Maybe because they knew I wouldn't or worried that I actually might. But I wasn't going to change my mind, once it was made up, there was no turning back and I didn't ever regret my decision, I still don't. I got more and more excited, more and more anxious to just get on the plane and go. There were no nerves as there usually were, just a sense of calm and peace that I can't remember ever feeling so strongly before.

So here I am, sitting on a plane somewhere between NC and CA, my old life rapidly falling back and my new adventure coming always closer. When we land, it will be 3 hours earlier than my watch, just enough difference to make me feel like I'm in a whole other world. And I will be. Life as I know it will change pretty dramatically, at least I hope. It starts with the place, I've always loved LA, where the mountains and the ocean are on the wrong side, where "everybody's got a dream" (10 pts to whoever names that movie), where the TV shows are brought to life.

So I'm throwing myself off the proverbial cliff and into the unknown below. Maybe it won't work out, maybe I'll hate LA, maybe I won't get a job or find it's not what I've dreamed but maybe it will work out, come together and I'll live my dream/fantasy/desire. Here, in flight between two coasts, limbo between worlds, I choose to believe I'll make it work, I choose hope and excitement over fear, and I hope you'll join me on this ride for the next few months as I find out what CA, LA, Hollywood, has to offer me and me it.

I'll post pictures when I have them, stories that are hopefully interesting, celebrity sightings (!) and my thoughts on the biggest risk and adventure I've ever taken. I miss all of you, family and friends alike, and send my love and hope you'll keep in contact as much as I will try to and don't forget to look me up if you're ever on the West coast!

More to come later, keep an eye in the next few days for first impressions, life at USC and more!

Much Love and Sunshine.