Bella and Willow

The streets have such lovely names in some parts of the OC.

My recent migration South has brought a few stories already.  One of them this weekend was about a young girl named Thea who had made a long journey here herself.

"You look like Bella Thorne!"

"Who is that?" I asked her.

"Bella Thorne. She's an actress. I love her. You look so much like her."

"Hmm I've never heard that one before. The one I've heard a bit is Winnona Ryder."

"You totally look like her too! Yes!"

"Aww thank you."

Looking around I saw such calming named streets. They were named after trees and other calm types of elements. I looked to my left and saw Willow and Elm and Origin and more. Some were also named with Native American influence.

"The streets here are so serene. Your complex is so cute."

"Thank you so much! Do you live over here?"

"I just moved actually. About a week ago. I still don't know where much is."

"Oh wow. Where'd you move here from?"

"Los Angeles most recently. I wanted a change."

"I understand. I did too but someday I want to be in LA."

"Have you lived here long?" I asked her.

"A little bit. Not too long actually."

I asked her about her journey here.

"I moved out here from the Phillipines."

Thea told me a lot of personal information about her journey. About how her mother had left when she was 7 and came to America. About how hard it was to be separated. Sadly it sounded that she internalized much of it to cope.

"Are you ok with all of that? I'm sorry. It sounds like so much."

"I am. I understand. She wanted a better life out here. Now I do too and so does my sister. My dad.."

"Your father or your stepfather?"

"My stepfather."

"Go on. I'm sorry I'm just trying to get a good understanding of everything."

"It's ok. But yes my stepdad helped sponsor my sister and I to come out here for school. We both want to be entrepreneurs someday."

Thea told me about how she had wanted to originally go to school for fashion but changed her major to general marketing. She had even gotten accepted at FIDM in downtown Los Angeles. However, she changed her mind.

"It was going to be so expensive and I wanted to expand on my major. I'm going to keep studying here in Irvine and then... and then I really want to move to LA."

Thea told me she had lived in Newport Beach for a bit before moving to Irvine but that the call of the city was really getting to her after three years. She told me to enjoy my time down here but that she was about ready to make the opposite jump.

"You know, there's a lot of opportunity up there in LA." I told her.

"I know."

"And trouble."

Thea smiled.

"Yes I know that too. That's why I want to move to LA."

I guess the grass is always greener or the trees are always more inviting in a place you have never lived before.