Transplant Theory: Oxen and Chameleons

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??

In my younger years and past experiences, I have certainly had my chameleon moments; I was eager to fit in and trying to figure out exactly who I was:

An Australian rugby super fan?

Leader of a Mexican conga line?

Susie sorority?

Typical Boulder student/ski bum?

Since living here, I have been eager to figure out the city in terms of both navigating the area and knowing where to hang out, however, I have been more reluctant to let go of my Chicago attitude.  I like to think that I have a good balance and could be a shining example of an oxelean:

See!?  I'm drinking out of a coconut on the beach, but
I'm still rocking a Bears shirt!

Buuuut, if I'm pressed to pick a side, I think I actually might be more of an ox.  Sure I do yoga, eat kale, and feel like I'm being cheated on any day without sunshine, but at the end of the day, my old habits are hard to kill.  For example...

• I like my pizza deep, loaded, and requiring a fork
• Ketchup does not belong on hot dogs, I don't care if it came from Pink's. By the way, that's really far from the beach.  Is there a train that goes there?  No?
• Trains are phenomenal and should be present in any metropolis. If you don't want more train access in LA, you are stupid. Period. (Sorry, I have strong feelings about public transportation).
• A bad baseball season is attributed to a goat from 1908 and you always "wait 'til next year."
• Down coats are for weather under 20 degrees. Period.
• Cheese + carbs= GOOOOOOOD :)

At my wise old age of 26 (yeah, I know, not so old, whatever), I'm finding it harder to transition away from my past lives and be a blank slate in my new experience.  I don't think I'm doing a bad job of experiencing a California lifestyle, it has just become very clear to me that I have not moved out here looking for something.  I'm pretty content with what I've got, and I'm excited to learn new things and have some cool experiences, but this move was not about hitting the reset button and starting over. I'm not expecting California to give me something I feel is missing.  That's not to say I have the rest of my life totally figured out, but I think the move has shown me that somewhere along the line, I've figured out who I am in a way that gives me more self-awareness and self-confidence.  I don't need to try on other people's hats to figure out what works for me as much.

And of course there will always be those rare nights were I throw on a short dress and heels and play Hollywood starlet for a night. Just because you know who you are doesn't mean you can't have fun with it... that and me blogging about sitting at the Chicago bar across the street drinking 312 would get pretty boring real fast...