Los Angeles changed my perception of life and dreams

Have you ever seen a big soap bubble flying high in the air shimmering of pink, light blue, silver and white? It’s so uplifting and fun to watch them dance lightly through the summer breezes. This magical lightness in the combination with a lot of edge and character reminds me of Los Angeles.

It is an extremely special city and to its residents, LA is a lifestyle rather than simply a home-town. Seeing the openness and lightness of people, the bravery to be different in whatever way it would be and embracing the weirdness all around at first felt uncomfortable to me but amazingly uplifting after starting to get used to all the Los Angeles scene.

People always say that you must spend a longer period of time there in order to really get into the state of mind that LA makes you feel. Recently after a week spent there I understood that’s it’s actually true.

LA for many is the place where you can go and really be yourself. It’s a great escape to just let your inner freak out and fit in among other beautiful weirdos around you.

Most people there in LA are chasing their dreams and desires and that’s exactly what makes this city so diverse, unique and accepting of the different.

In Los Angeles “weird” equals “beautiful”. Nobody will ever look at you disapprovingly on the street just because you are wearing something weird or look crazy in terms of some useless norms.

In contrast to it, there are so many places in the world, including Latvia, a country in Eastern-Europe where I come from, where people tend to be living “by the book”.

Almost nobody quite likes to be different, to be known for something extra-ordinary, to go and live their deepest desires and just do things that seem “too crazy” to happen with them.

I can not even tell you how many times I have heard somebody back at home saying things like – “I wish I could move to US or Asia”, “I wish I could quit my job and just go backpacking around the world”, “I wish I could be with that person”, “I wish I could start my own business”, “I wish I was a movie star” etc.

And every time when I ask them back “Why aren’t you doing that?” they name many different reasons holding them back and they are pretty much the same for everybody – “I don’t have enough money to follow my dream”, “I have responsibility towards my family/ friends/ employers”, “I don’t speak the language”, “I’m afraid it won’t work out” and so on.

Living in the society that always goes by the rules makes people not believe in themselves in what they can actually do.

Also seeing people around living a stable and predictable life makes risk-taking less appealing because having “good enough life” is good enough, right?

But when asking yourself the usual doubtful question “What if I don’t get it what I desire the most?” also ask yourself this “What if I do get what I desire?” Do you like how that feels?

The world really needs more truly happy people who come alive with their goals and dreams!

Somehow spending a week in LA made me realize this and really had me thinking “Is this the best I can do in my life?” And there’s only one answer to that – there’s always more.

LA offers a huge variety of things for locals and for tourists.

If you go there for a short visit like we did, you must find a way to explore awesome touristy stuff as well as get a glimpse of local life.

Universal Studios, West Hollywood, Santa Monica Pier, Venice beach, celebrity tours, and other main attractions are something you must see in order to experience the entertainment of LA.

It’s truly remarkable.

However, there are many smaller local favorite hangout spots and there you can really get inspired by a local scene.

There you’ll see good looking, tan, ridiculously fit and truly interesting locals hanging out with friends, working on their laptops, having an iced coffee and just being happy and positive about life.

Go to a Verve Coffee on Melrose just to see what I mean. The vibe there is awesome. At least for me, the mindset changers were exactly these kinds of small away-from-the-crowds spots across the city.

But I wouldn’t have wanted to miss the chance of seeing the big famous sights as well.

I hope you also get a chance to see LA and get inspired by it as I did. A post about awesome places that we visited while in LA coming soon.