Along with palm tree and fake boobs, another thing LA is full of is transplants: people who have moved to LA from other places. People who actually grew up in LA are about as rare as snowflakes. I've met many a transplant over the last six months and have actually started to categorize them into two groups in my mind: oxen and chameleons. Stay with me here, it's good I promise.
Oxen are the stubborn people. The ones who move to LA and refuse to give up their customs and traditions from their old way of life. They are often the ones who have moved to LA for a job or a relationship, not because they actually wanted to move to LA. They tend to pick out the negative qualities of the city and claim that it's fake, plastic, and materialistic. They refuse to let the city change them.
Chameleons are eager to blend in and become "Hollywood." They are the people who have come out to LA to try and live the California lifestyle. They often have preset ideas about how living here will change their lives, and genuinely want to embrace change and absorb what LA has to offer. They may desire fame, fortune, or something else entirely, but they see LA as they key to their success. They want the city to make them.
Now, obviously not everyone fits into one of these two categories, and quite honestly, the people I gravitate towards and all of my friends out here have a healthy mix of both animals, perhaps we call them, oxeleons. They are open-minded, up for trying new things and having adventures, yet they are grounded and confident in who they are and where they come from. They want the city to inspire them, but not define them.
The real question I have been asking myself lately is, which animal am I??
