My "Ancient Sorrow" by David Denton

Lately I've been questioning why I live in Los Angeles. Aside from my Netflix subscription, I have little to do with the Entertainment Industry. As far as my job/career goes, well just say I walk a fine line between Self-Employment and Unemployment. In the past, when I've had these bouts with residential unrest, I've had a tendency to pack the car in the middle of the night and leave town. Fortunately this time, I have my high school reunion to save me.

Most people, including me, don’t look forward to their high school reunion. Be wary of anyone who does. Most people probably haven’t lived up to the promise of success they envisioned in their heads, however unrealistic it is or successful they’ve become. Or, if they have and are hell-bent on showing it off to the rest of the class, they have serious issues that need to be addressed. I spent plenty of time worrying about remembering names (I can remember the most obscure lyrics from VH1 Classic and not tell you what I ate for dinner yesterday) and trying to explain what it is exactly that I do (I still don’t have an answer for this one.)

So I headed back to Florida (the little unincorporated town of Middleburg, FL to be exact) to be quickly reminded that I’ve lived in LA for some time and my gills no longer work to breathe the 110% humid air (The humidity is not one of the reasons I left Florida, but it is one of the reasons I’m glad I did) and face my old classmates.

Aside from the guy who brought his own Dale Earnhardt Coozie to the country club, my classmates in attendance appeared to turn out to be well-adjusted, middle class heroes. Since most of them chose life paths that kept them in Florida, the first few people I encountered were enthusiastic about my living in LA. As the night wore on, more and more people came up to me to and started the conversation with some intrigued variation on “…so I hear you’re in Los Angeles…” I must admit, it caught me by surprise. I really thought nothing of living here. It’s just another town. I completely forgot why I moved out here.

Quick Flashback.

• The Place – A dot.com located in Jacksonville, FL.
• The Situation – Nearing the end of committed financing and eventual shutdown.
• The Person – The primary investor.
• The Speech -- “You guys are always trying to swing for the fences. Why not just build a little site that works for some local people?”

That last line explains it all. You see, in the South, for those of us looking to do big things in the business world, the cities function much like minor league baseball teams. They are essentially the farm system for the big leagues. Pensacola is single A. Jacksonville is double A. Charlotte is triple A. If you want to play in the big leagues though, you’ve got to move to a big city like Atlanta. The Midwest is similar in this fashion. Ask most Big 10 School graduates and see where they’re headed next for work and the number one answer will be Chicago.

This investor is your typical nameless, faceless millionaire next door. While a successful small businessman in a small town, he scoffed at the very idea of “swinging for the fences.” That’s the small town mindset. Don’t swing for the fences because you’re not likely to hit a homerun. For everything I love about small towns, this is the reason they’re small. Despite being raised in a small town, I don’t subscribe to that mindset. This, along with tens of tanks of gasoline, was the fuel that drove me to Los Angeles to hit my homerun.

In Search of Cheese.
A few years have past and I’m still here. I haven’t hit my homerun yet, but I also just realized I haven’t had a “homerun cut” lately either. I took living here for granted. I forgot all the reasons I moved here (Indonesian food isn’t one of them, but it is one of the reasons I’m glad I did.) I came here to be part of the rat race. I chose to use whatever this thing is that pushes me t

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»  Netflix
»  VH1 Classic
»  Weather in Middleburg, FL
»  Classmates.com
»  Dale Earnhardt Coozie
»  The Banyan Indonesian Restaurant
»  "The Millionaire Next Door" by Thomas Stanley and William Danko
»  Paddy Casey - Amen So Be It