new leaf. new life.

Hopped off the plane at LAX

I’ve landed in LA after a short winter wonderland in Boston. I had such a great time in Boston with my friend Brode. I don’t tink I have been that drunk on my trip yet. I have video footage of myself rolling around in the snow, drunk, and amazed that ice was falling from the sky… It’s actually really embarrassing. I ice skated on an outside skating rink and was actually pretty good. It was magical, and honestly what dreams are made of.

I haven’t seen much of LA but so far it has such a different feel to all the other places I have visited. I went out to a club last night and I just have this feeling that everyone thinks they are famous or a big deal or something. Within the first 2 minutes of walking in to the club I got in to a disagreement with some guy getting a drink next to me at the bar. He jokingly said to me in an attempt to flirt, “you don’t look old enough to be in here, can I see your ID”? I responded with, “No, the bouncer already did that, maybe you’re just old”. He didn’t take it too well. Seems like people are really sensitive in LA. In Australia you would just toughen up and stop being a diva, so this was a somewhat culture shock to me.

First impressions haven’t been great of LA, but it has plenty of time to redeem itself. I’m in the process of shooting and editing a new YouTube VLOG. I’ll keep you all posted! Feel free to give me some ideas of what to do while I’m here. Once again I haven’t really done too much research in the area.

EDIT: I also got a haircut when I landed and it is terrible and short. So I kind of hate it right now. The lady took no care whatsoever and its pretty bad.

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Opening my eyes to innocence (in LA)

I make it no secret that I was raised in a very liberal setting. I have no religion as such, and being around those with strong religious beliefs intrigues me. Landing in LA I was greeted by my friend who comes from a heavy Christian background. He has a big group of friends that follow Christianity quite strongly and I was introduced to them.

Although I didn’t exactly detail my sexuality to them, they welcomed me with open arms, smiles and inquisitive questions on my travels. I felt like it was a situation of don’t ask, don’t tell. I had a great time getting to know them (and I will be seeing them before I leave too!). The great thing about traveling to me is meeting people and observing their lifestyles. The Christian American lifestyle is something that could not be further from my realm. Pushing everything aside, including my terrible language that I kept apologising for, I had a great time getting to know how they lived, interacted and socialised.

I spent a night out with 4 girls that all are heavily religious. Watching them have a few drinks (that got them much more enebriated than it would I) and dance to rap and hip hop songs that would include very interesting lyrics for a Christian to sing. It made me realise, these girls are just the same and my friends and I back home. Religion changes nothing really. Sure they don’t drink as much, or like to swear as much as I, but they have good intentions and love a good time. The only thing I noticed is how sheltered they seem from the world, but that comes with time and experience. I’m sure they will take the time to figure it out like we all do at our own pace.

This really is what my trip has been all about - learning. I’ve learnt so much, and I’m still learning every day. I’m coming home with a new perspective and appreciation for what I believe and for what I have.

My life is like an apple tree; the more I feed and nurture it, the more fruit I begin to see.

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Dancing for approval.

Starting a new job is always hard. You have to meet expectations that you’re not clear on, you have to meet new people, you have to impress, and you also have to force yourself to be comfortable in a new environment as quickly as possible.

Beginning my new job this past week in a bar has been a real transition. The work has been standard and I haven’t found that difficult at all. For me, the hardest thing is not knowing the people. As everyone walks around chatting to each other about what they all did on the weekend (together, naturally), I just stand there derping my way around, hoping for that little bit of attention to pull me in to their little gang.

It hasn’t taken long. Not soon after I begun derping around had the rest of the team realised that I am not too different from them. Fast forward to last night, and we were all drunk in a club shooting Jägermeister bombs and dancing around like old friends. I insisted that I go to the vending machine and buy pretzels (after my addiction started in San Francisco) and eat them while dancing (Lisette, this is aimed at you).

So here I am, Monday at midday, feeling seedy and hungover in a successful effort to win the approval of my new colleagues. Succe$$ I would say.

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Tolerance.

As a young man (who happens to be a homosexual), I do not wish to be tolerated. In fact, I don’t think homosexuality is something that should be tolerated. Bad behaviour is something that is either tolerated or is not, as is the smell from your next door neighbours over fertilised garden. Someone who says that they are gay tolerant is actually insulting the LGBT community.

I am by far a pro-gay activist, nor do I wave a rainbow flag from the top of my house as people drive by. But what I do believe in is equality. Whether that means you are male, female, black, white, Asian, straight, gay, or anything in between, if you wish to be treated as a person, you treat those around you as a person. You can’t believe in equality and unequal treatment, that’s kind of hypocritical. I don’t let being a homosexual define who I am, and neither should you.

I do not tolerate this kind of behaviour.

(Source: thesecretdiaryofjake)

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Letter to a 15 year old me.

Dear 15 year old Jake,

I am writing to you today to warn you about a few things in life that may conveniently pop up, and to warn you about yourself. You need to know that although at times you may feel like it is all too much and that things are not fair, everything always turns out for the best. 

Don’t give up. Things get better. You are your own worst enemy. You criticise yourself too much. Smile, have fun and don’t let growing up bother you. Keep a balance between school, friends, fun and family because for the next couple of years they are all you have. You’ll be surprised about the quality of work you produce, just run with it because you are much more talented than you give yourself credit for. Also, please give your dog Cooper a little more attention as a puppy, he has developed separation anxiety in his old age and it’s getting exhausting.

There will be a time where that bitch from school will punch you in the head and it will hurt. Don’t worry, a close friend gets them back. Also, don’t drink too many raspberry or coconut flavoured vodka/rum drinks as your future tastebuds cannot stand them. You also get an A on that Marketing paper you thought you were going to fail in University.

You won’t be searching for your identity forever. It’s when you stop looking that you finally find it. Also, don’t worry, you don’t stay greasy and ugly for long. For the love of god please do not get those highlights and that side fringe. I still cringe about them today.

Learn to trust people quicker. It really does help you out later in life, I promise. Go with your gut instincts, they are almost always right. The whole gay thing really isn’t that big of a deal. No one cares that much about it. Your Mother is not surprised and your Dad supports you no matter what. Don’t let it consume you, you’ll find that being gay is a part of who you are, not everything you are.

You fall in love. Don’t let your insecurities and walls hold you back. Don’t make the mistakes I did. When your heart does get broken, and it will, you need to understand that this pain is something you need to feel. It hurts like hell, but it will grow you as a person and you pop out on the other side stronger than ever. And just don’t date that guy at the start of 2009, he is 100% not worth your time.

Love,

Jake.

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An EX-perience.

It is no mystery in life that some people are just bad people. There is also another kind of person out there, and most of us are those people. I bet we can all say that there is at least one person out there that doesn’t think too fondly of you. I can name a few people who can’t stand to be in the same room with me. Why? Because we don’t get along, or that we have shared a negative experience with each other, or at some stage one has just hurt the other and the relationship never healed.

There was this person I dated a while back, and as charming as they were, they did some bad things to me. And while I have felt nothing but negative feelings towards that person for so long, recently I have eased off the poison and come to terms that sometimes good people just do bad things.

I bumped in to them awkwardly at a local bar and saw them with their partner. I see how happy they are, and I see that maybe I was a bit harsh. I often challenge my own beliefs and try to see things from other perspectives and I suppose that this is one of those occasions. I am the type of person to forgive, but not forget. I’ll forgive you for what you did, but I will never forget it.

The key message in this blog post today is just to remember that sometimes bad things just happens. Not all bad things are done by bad people.

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