Hi Michelle - The best thing for you to do would be to come down and visit for a couple/few months and check out the country and the island. You'll never be able to figure out on a forum if you're going to love it, hate it, or end up somewhere in the middle. I'm pretty sure most of us on this forum love it and are quite passionate about Belize. It's a paradise to us, but that's because we accept it the way it is, and try to keep it that way as much as possible. It couldn't be any less like Laguna Beach, so you would have to put that notion completely aside. It's another country, so doesn't play by any rules other than its own.
Come down, visit, relax, enjoy, experience, then decide. Some folks live full time, some half the year here and half somewhere else, some visit as much as they're able be that a few times a year or once every 5 years.
We're a pretty friendly and fun lot, so come hang out for a bit and de-stress.