The collection of words on the OC

When I was dating this girl in 2003, I was just out of college and using every friend I had to try to get a job. My link from her lead me to Fox Studios on Pico. This was about July of that year. The whole place was abuzz about “The OC.” They were saying it was going to be huge, it was supposed to be next great show. I mean a show about teenagers in Orange County? You have to be kidding me.

Almost four years later, I feel like I lost a friend, and more so, a text that represented where I was for a period of my life.

When season 2 came on, it was in late 2004. It had switched from Wed to Thursday night, and seeing that I worked that night, I was in a bind (this was in the early days of TIVO and torrent TV sites). I talked to my boss and arranged so that I could take the 8-9 hour off to watch the OC. Admitting you have a problem is the first step.

By the time it ended, even with all of the false hurdles, even with the needless Luke interjection, suddenly, it was back, and for the first time, I guess I felt I knew LA was my home.

Living alone in LA was scary once I left college. I had no base, I had only marginal ideas of where to go, and all I had was a car, a house, and a phone.

What I was lacking was a family, a girlfriend, and a home.

Thankfully, within a month of me getting me own place, my favorite uncle wound up moving from the OC to Brentwood.

For a year or two, I lived with a broken heart, always thinking salvation was in the arms of someone else.

If becoming a man is anything, it’s that self importance is valued only on the self, and not the others. That and the whole concept is overrated.

The things that matter in life are friends, family, and a sense of home.

I’ll live in LA for years to come. At least I think I will. The reason I still love the OC, even underneath the shit of it all, was that I was finding myself, and the greatest comfort and joy I could pin myself to was a TV show about teenagers.

What is it they say about text’s finding you?