Hopefully you guys don't mind, but the next few posts are going to be based on lessons I learned whilst in California. I'll throw in some pictures to keep you entertained, but there are definitely a few things I want to touch on. So consider this post 1 of 5!
When I went to LA for the first time I was 20. If you have been reading since the beginning you might remember how I have really struggled to pin-point the onset of my eating disorder. Though there is no recorded evidence of it, I know that a seed was planted in me during that first trip to the land of fame and fortune, and that seed grew into a massive weed.
Does anybody remember the movie Monkey Trouble? Like most children, I became obsessed with it and would watch it over and over and over. Eva, the little starlet, spends a lot of her time with her monkey Dodger on both Venice Beach as well as the Santa Monica pier, where the sidewalks are lined with rollerbladers in bikini tops and next-to-nude divas everywhere. Of course, when I was 10 and watching this movie on repeat, I wasn't consciously absorbing these details, but my sub-conscience was. When I got to LA in 2004 I realized with a shock that the movie accurately depicted a culture that I had never experienced or thought to be real, and it really messed me up.
You basically know the drill: 20-year-old Christina arrives in LA. Christina's eyes start to see the "beautiful people" on the beaches. Christina looks in the mirror and no longer likes what she sees. Christina decides that something needs to change. Enter: eating disorder.
BUT...that was almost 6 years ago.
This time was a different story. I have learned such a valuable lesson, and I will share it with you now in the form of a Hannah Montana song, which I am confident that you will forgive me for.
Nobody's perfect
I gotta work it
Again and again
'Til I get it right
Nobody's perfect
You live and you learn it
And if I mess it up sometimes
Nobody's perfect
How simple is that, right? Hannah got paid a heck of a lot of money to jot this one down and turn it into a hit. But it was the very attitude of this song that sent me to LA with my head on straight this time.
Like I mentioned in my post from the MAC Store, I wore heels and let my hair down and played and dreamed and ran. And I saw the beautiful people, yes, but I have learned not only to appreciate them, but also that you are one of them. And so am I. We are all beautiful people, and not one of us is perfect.
Oh, the freedom to just be. It was amazing. Absolutely amazing.
Be sure to play.
Be sure to run.
With so much love,
~C~
