Log In Sign Up

The board · Los Angeles · Curious

My worry is that I am a tourist and will waste somebody's year

Posted as am_i_a_tourist, 28 August 2026

Looking for
somebody experienced who can tell the difference before I do
Experience
None. Nine months here and a fear of taking up somebody's time.
Around
downtown, Los Angeles

Here is the thing that stops me writing to people. I do not know whether I actually want this or whether I like reading about it, and those two look identical from the inside. If it is the second, then somebody experienced spends four months on me and I quietly evaporate, which is exactly the story I have read on this board about twenty times, always told by the person left behind.

Thirty three, downtown, nine months on here, no experience whatsoever.

I am not asking to be reassured. I am asking to talk to somebody who has seen both kinds of beginner and can tell me what the difference looks like from where they stand, because I cannot see it from here and waiting for certainty on my own has clearly not worked.

If it turns out I am serious, what I want is structure and being answerable, ongoing, nothing dramatic. If it turns out I am not, I would rather find that out in a conversation than after somebody has invested a season in me.

Not looking to be talked into anything so that the question is settled. Not looking for somebody who finds the uncertainty appealing in itself. And not looking to be told to just try it, which is advice I have had four times and cannot act on.

Reply to this post Replies go through your account, not this page. Nothing you send is published here.

What to have sorted before you reply

If this one reads like your own head rather than somebody to answer, the tactics can wait. These three all happen before there is a first match to get wrong.

Also in Los Angeles

Every post in Los Angeles →

Reading is free. Answering needs an account.

Put one of your own where people near you will read it, and answer the ones already up.

Open the app Already have an account? Log in