Reflections

Revisiting My Younger Self in Los Angeles

A quick weekend trip to Los Angeles left me nostalgic and pensive. As a student at UCLA, I lived in Santa Monica. Here I am in front of  my studio apartment. Amazingly, little about my former abode has changed. I was pleased to find a Community Garden alongside the property. Throughout the weekend, I found myself thinking of the path from there to now. A hard working French student, I didn't spend a whole lot of time at the beach except for bike riding on the trail paralelling the ocean. After graduate school, I taught English to Japanese students downtown. One day, returning home on the Big Blue Santa Monica Bus, I met a young man from Detroit who was later to become my husband and father of our awesome sons. Ironically, after a career in business, he became a TriMet bus driver. Some how despite the trials and tribulations of my early twenties, life in Los Angeles seemed lighter than the present. I couldn't put my finger on it until I got home. RESPONSIBILITY. I was only responsible for myself back then and now so much.  But with responsibility comes privilege and so I feel grateful that despite the weight of responsibility as a more mature adult, I get to do what I love and be with people I adore.