If you can swing it financially, that's probably a really good place to start. Get out of California for a while. You're quite correct in that it's different from the rest of the US, in some ways better and in some ways worse. You're (I'm assuming) legally entitled to work anywhere in the US, so consider taking advantage of that.
Finally, I think the whole "finding something you're passionate about" thing is largely bullshit. This article:
lays it out much more eloquently than I could. If you can get really good at one or two things that you don't hate you'll start to see interesting work in those fields come your way.
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000076.html
If you can swing it financially, that's probably a really good place to start. Get out of California for a while. You're quite correct in that it's different from the rest of the US, in some ways better and in some ways worse. You're (I'm assuming) legally entitled to work anywhere in the US, so consider taking advantage of that.
Finally, I think the whole "finding something you're passionate about" thing is largely bullshit. This article:
http://calnewport.com/blog/2009/11/24/are-passions-serendipi...
lays it out much more eloquently than I could. If you can get really good at one or two things that you don't hate you'll start to see interesting work in those fields come your way.