When I was in high school, a small beach town in California was prominently featured as an MTV reality show, Laguna Beach. It glorified a lifestyle that was familiar to me as a high school student who also lived by the beach, but distinctively cool and decidely West Coast social. I wondered then, if that was the life I should be living, because at the time, I was very obviously not caught up in love triangles and prom night.
When I was in college, a small beach town in New Jersey was prominently featured as an MTV reality show, Jersey Shore. It glorified a lifestyle I recognized in the Bennies who trashed our beaches every summer and in the frat-like behavior I was then experiencing. I was irritated that Long Island accents were giving voice to places I knew and that Seaside Heights was suddenly representing all of New Jersey’s coast.
It’s fair to say that both representations of these beach towns were untrue to the people who lived and grew up there. These narratives and storylines on TV were not ours, and yet somehow, as an adolescent and young adult, one made me desirous and one made me angry.
And so, I finally made it to Laguna Beach last month. All it did was make me achingly homesick for where I’m from.
Inspired Scribble 