KEEPING IT REAL IN DALLAS

I chose this topic to start this blog, because it will become a recurring theme throughout. This is the single hardest thing to remind yourself of while you live here. It seems everyone here wants to be something they aren’t, or even worse, everyone else wants you to be something you’re not. This town is all about excess, more is better! The rich people want to be richer, the girl with the big boobs wants them bigger, the coke head wants to do more coke, the guy with the condo in the Ashton wants one in the W, and it just keeps going on. The longer I live here the more I realize that you are who you are and the people that will ultimately really matter in your life will appreciate you for being comfortable in your own skin. Dallas is such a big city that you can (and believe me, people do) live multiple lives and never have them cross. You can be married to a girl in Frisco, have a girlfriend in Addison and date a stripper in Highland Park and never have any aspect of those lives cross. I promise you, IT HAPPENS! If that’s your goal and that’s what you want, then go for it, you are living in one of the best cities in the US to do that, so enjoy it. But if you are like most people, especially me from Smalltown, USA, then that’s not your gig. Most people are normal guys and girls that moved here for a job and just want to meet a good group of friends and experience all this great city has to offer. The first big acclimation aspect is in conversation. You can be guaranteed that one of the first three question you will be asked in any conversation is “what do you do”? I always thought this was a very pretentious question and it always rubbed me the wrong way, but the more I live here, I realize that it’s just an ice breaker. There are so many people living here that aren’t from here that there is no common ground. Asking someone what they do isn’t really trying to find out if they are important or how much money they make, but more of a conversation starter to lead into other questions. I use to be totally against this question and would actually go out of my way not to ask it until the 3rd or 4th time I met someone, if I would ask it at all. Now I ask it all the time. Almost every time I either know someone that works in a related field or for the company they work for. If not, it leads into questions about what they do and makes them feel like you are interested in them, even if you could care less about what a mortgage broker does or how many chunks of chicken are in one scoop of a Chipotle burrito. Asking questions and responding draws people in and keeps their attention and you will definitely need to get people interested and keep their attention in this town. Just remember, when the question is directed at you, no matter what you do, keep it real, tell them the truth and be proud of it. Who cares if you don’t make $50 - $100k a year, not many people do, even in Benzville (Dallas), you are who you are, be proud of that and if someone makes you feel like who you are isn’t important, then you don’t need to be around that group of people anyway! Keep it real…