Cut Your Losses

Sometimes, it feels like you can look into the future. Not predict the future, precisely, but rather run the numbers and evaluate the likely scenarios. 

I did this more than a decade ago when I briefly lived in Los Angeles. 

I was interning at a movie studio and working two jobs. I felt a terrible ache at being away from the east coast, three hours behind everything I knew. It was an alienation that surprised me, but refused to dissipate.

And then I peered into the future. 

I observed the grown ups in the Story Department at Columbia Pictures, jealous of the colleagues who lived outside of LA. 

I read the news stories about high property taxes. 

I imagined my future as a denizen of Southern California, with the taxes and the endless driving and the steep cost to fly back to the east coast. 

I wanted to write for television and film. But I wanted to avoid those pitfalls more. 

That’s the beauty of youth. You can cut your losses, and change course.