Culture shock is a state of mind

As I begin my third year at UCLA, I find myself experiencing
what I’d like to call a mid-college identity crisis. Although
I was born and raised in Northern California, I have been living in
Westwood for two years during which my attitude, my dress, my
speech, and even my hair have undergone a metamorphosis.

The changes have been such that I find it difficult to solely
identify myself as someone from “NorCal.” I still have
a fondness (or as my Southern Californian friends would say, a
nostalgia that borders on romanticism) for my native region, and it
is strong enough for me to wince at the idea of completely
abdicating my NorCal identity.

This predicament has been particularly glaring during the past
few weeks since I am writing from my home base in the East Bay
Area. Recently I find that even in my most familiar surroundings, I
feel somewhat like an outsider as I struggle to understand the
behavior of individuals and of a culture that I used to know very
well.

I feel I’ve lost the qualities that were once innate just
by living in the Bay Area, such as the ability to relax and
appreciate the sedate settings. Being a stereotypical laid back
NorCal girl doesn’t come as easily for me as it used to. For
example, my driving, which teamed with calmness and patience when I
still lived in Northern California, has taken on the stereotypical
characteristics of aggressive Los Angeles driving. Being accustomed
to the indifference of strangers in Los Angeles, I am (pleasantly)
surprised to encounter a friendly stranger at home.

I can no longer tap into NorCal culture without analyzing the
hell out of it. The relaxed, friendly social culture that I used to
take for granted now seems strange to me.

If I had to cite one main reason that Northern California
differs from Southern California, it would be that Southern
California culture is very much based on “keeping up with the
Jones,” that is, paying attention to what others have and do
and striving to obtain and do the same. L.A. culture is based on
looking, observing and copying others.

While I don’t want to completely bash L.A. culture, I find
that people from Northern California as a whole tend to be less
concerned about what others are doing, unless they work in Silicon
Valley, where survival depends on staying ahead of competitors.
People in L.A. seem to be concerned with maintaining a social
hierarchy, which seems to be supported by the conventions of
intense social observation and consciousness as well as visual
wealth found in Southern California.

In Los Angeles, it is particularly important to display wealth
through visual symbols since many individuals define success and
social status by what they have. The wealth that I have witnessed
in the UCLA community may be influenced by the proximity of
Hollywood, Bel Air and Beverly Hills to our campus, even though
symbols of wealth appear to be a unifying characteristic of most of
Southern California.

By living in L.A., I have picked up the habit of observing
others’ images and paying close attention to the image I
project in return. While materialism is not unique to Los Angeles,
Northern California lacks the Southern California habits of such
close observation. During the past two years, my consciousness of
images has been dramatically heightened.

Having the extreme consciousness of social situations and
symbols that comes from living in L.A., and trying to use that
consciousness in Northern California, where it’s completely
inapplicable has become a problem. My NorCal friends don’t
even know what I’m talking about when I bring up the idea of
heightened social consciousness. They tell me to quit analyzing
everything people do and just “kick back.”

One adjustment I had to make when I came to UCLA was learning
the social codes of Southern California ““ and believe me,
they do exist. I didn’t understand why I had to dress up to
go into Westwood at night, or why people didn’t freely
associate with one another in social situations. Slowly I began to
understand these conventions and why they exist. What’s funny
is that some Southern Californians will blatantly deny these
conventions exist; these kinds of hyper social consciousness are so
internalized they’re thought to be normal.

My mother, for example, always remarks how she forgets
she’s still in California when she visits L.A., since
everything is so foreign to her. Her observation signifies that the
Southern California lifestyle is not necessarily
“normal,” as its natives would like to think. It is
just one way of life that has developed in response to extreme
economic competition, the images of Hollywood, and even SoCal
weather.

The French philosopher Montaigne wrote an essay on cannibals
that tries to demonstrate why no culture can adequately judge
another or say that one is “better” than another. What
we can conclude from Montaigne’s essay is that certain social
conventions that work in one culture don’t necessarily work
in others. The same ideas apply, I believe, when looking at
Northern and Southern California cultures.

Southern Californians have an obvious disdain for Northern
California lifestyle. I know this because I have experienced it
first hand. Somehow because NorCal lacks the glitz of SoCal its
residence are judged as hippies or stuck in the past. The
stereotypes are hard to fight off.

I’ve heard countless individuals at UCLA try to convince
me that they can “tell” who is from NorCal based on
their clothes. Some people still try to persuade me how rainy and
cold the weather is in NorCal when I know that it’s been more
than 90 freakin’ degrees everyday since I came home for
summer.

NorCal residents also have a disdain for SoCal life, preferring
the relaxation and simplicity of the Bay to the smog and traffic of
the Basin. I have also experienced this kind of disdain first hand;
you wouldn’t believe the hell I catch for coming home with a
suntan, blonde highlights in my hair, and using the word
“dope” instead of the traditional “hella.”
Some of my friends’ criticism, which reflects the changes
they see in me, implies that I have “sold out” to the
Southern Californian conventions. God forbid I should forget to
take off my sunglasses when I come indoors, or I might lose all my
friends from the Bay Area.

I think it’s important to analyze why I’ve changed
since coming to the Los Angeles area. Maybe it’s a survival
tactic. After all, L.A. is probably one of the largest supporters
of Social Darwinism. Simply put, in L.A. you eat or you get eaten.
In order to be taken seriously (at least socially), I have to alter
my appearance and attitude. I suppose I have some shame in doing
so, but unfortunately outward appearances are simply too important
to over look in L.A.

While I don’t think I’ve sold out or abdicated the
core of my identity, I think I’ve made the appropriate
adjustments in lifestyle so that I don’t get lost or taken
advantage of in the shuffle of thousands of people, cars, and
fashion trends. I feel I’ve found a good mix of both cultures
that’s worked best for me. I may get blonder during the
second half of my college career, but I will try to heed the wise
advice of my NorCal buds to just “kick back.”