Whew, it's good to be home. This past 10 day exile from the city of Angels was a hard one. Hard not because of the people and traveling (although those had their moments), but hard because I have turned into a hard-core SoCal Angelino. You know how you can recognize New Yorkers anywhere by their accent and NYC attitude? (I don't mean that in a negative way, you often know a NYer when you see em.) And the most hard core can't imagine living anywhere else? Well, if you apply it to heathervescent you'll need to swap out NYC for LA. I used to love traveling the world, seeing other cultures, play being a native when I was a tourist. I studied 5 languages because I wanted to communicate with anyone and understand culture from the insides. Now I don't care if I ever leave California. There is no other place in the world I would rather be (except maybe Brazil - actually naaahh.)
In the past year, as the LA geek scene has exploded, several different people have asked me why I don't extend my event/activities to other cities. I certainly believe there are opportunities in other locals - tech scenes are exploding in "second" and "third" tier tech cities all over the world. I considered building a world empire for about 5 minutes and then I realized that was a boy-ego-mustkeepupwithNerd2point0geekscene thought. I don't care about building an empire across the world (at least not in the geek scene). And when I think about what I am passionate about - it's technology and Los Angeles. So although I pause and wonder if I am passing up a huge opportunity for some kind of "domination", I stay true to myself, my passions and my authenticity and stay focused on the city I love. The city that inspires me. The city that drives me crazy and fills me with possibilities. A city that only rivals NYC and Mexico City in the Northern Hemisphere and with world peers of Shanghai, Sao Paolo, Mumbai, Tokyo and Seoul. A city close enough to nature that I can disappear off the grid, deep into hardcore desert in 4 hours. Or if I have only 1 hour, I can drive to the top of a mountain and look out across the basin, shivering in snow depending on the month. I don't need to leave LA, because I have the whole world right here - and I'm living smack in the middle of it.
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