t-shirt // Bassike jeans // J Brand necklace // Aaron’ s own sunglasses // Garrett Leight

hear on the radio people talking about the Bank of America robbery, which was [ a few ] blocks from my apartment … First experience in L. A., moving into this new world, and my mom, she’ s such a worrier already, and then there’ s this shootout two blocks away.”

Every small-town mom’ s worst nightmare of what could happen to her kid in the big city came true for Paul’ s mom in real time.“ We huddled around this pretty much empty apartment listening to the radio, hearing the helicopters above,” says Paul.“ It was just wild.”

Los Angeles tends to greet its pilgrims with warm sun and a cold shoulder. But Paul’ s rude introduction didn’ t scare him away. Instead, he found the city often rewards those who stick with it.“ I thought I was moving to the City of Angels where dreams come true. I thought I was going to be blown away from the moment I stepped out of my car,” he says.“ And it’ s hard and it’ s a struggle.”

He warmed to the city even as he struggled to find a foothold in Hollywood.“ After two years of really getting my core group of friends, surrounding myself with incredible people, I really fell in love with L. A. and the state of California,” he tells me.“ I was so sheltered in Idaho, [ it’ s ] just very white. You’ re either Christian, Baptist, Mormon, Catholic; and then I moved to L. A. at such a young age and my eyes were really opened … I had such a detailed, painted point of view of what I knew the world was and I think moving to Los Angeles threw all that out the window.

“ I’ m not religious whatsoever anymore. Maybe you could say spiritual; I don’ t know. What I believe is, I have no idea what the hell is going on, you know? Humans have been on this planet for such a fraction of a second, not even that, in comparison to everything … how do we know?”

40 treatsmagazine. com