Rueben's Ramblings

Over 11 years ago, I made a decision that changed my life in a most profound way. After a trip to sunny Los Angeles for my very first sci-fi convention, which was actually my 5th trip to California, I had an epiphany: I wanted, needed, HAD to move to California.

The news wasn’t that well-received by my family, life-long friends or even my neighbors – and in a small town like my hometown – population under 2,000 at the time of my epiphany – the whole town was virtually my neighbors, family and life-long friends (for the most part anyway).

I spent the next year planning my move, doing massive amounts of research on California, checking into jobs, looking at housing options, selling nearly everything I owned and explaining and re-explaining to my bewildered family, friends and neighbors why I wanted to move 3,000 miles away from home; going to a place where they felt only the craziest of the crazy lived (which I knew wasn’t true, but convincing them of that was a bit harder to do).

After all that work and planning, the big day finally arrived – June 21, 2000. I left my little hometown of Apollo, Pennsylvania for sunny Burbank, California. The first few weeks were spent learning “the lay of the land,” finding a decent apartment (which I didn’t have before I moved) and landing a job (which I also didn’t have before I moved).

I was very fortunate to land a job pretty quickly at the very place where I wanted to be: Warner Brothers. And, I eventually found a, let’s say suitable, apartment in Burbank. I may not have been on my way to the big time (far from it actually), but it was a good beginning.

As the years rolled by, I made wonderful friends, gained valuable work experience, discovered the endless possibilities in California and attended some of the greatest concerts, events and TV-related conventions on the West Coast. I cannot imagine what my life would be like without having moved here.

And now that it is 2010, it is hard for me to believe that I celebrated 10 years of living in California as of this past Monday. The epiphany I had 11 years ago was a Godsend; it came at the right time and, as fate would have it, all the pieces fell into place so succinctly that I could not have planned it better if I had tried.

I look forward to spending many more years here, attending as many great events as I can afford and fit into my schedule and discovering more of this great state.