Times Change.
When I was a kid, my oldest sister moved from Ohio to California to start her college years at a prestigious university. She had no real idea what was in store for her, she only enrolled because people would give an impressive sigh each time she said she got accepted to the school. Almost twenty years later, she is still out on the west coast, established in her career as a private small business owner. Throughout my childhood, my sister would come home for holidays, birthdays, and family vacations. I saw a different side of her each time I came home- she was so beautiful and glamorous. It was as if the California sun had changed her from a budding seedling into a full blown flower.
I too, went out to California to discover my own path in life. I grew up in a small, midwestern town where I had only one path available in my life-a mediocre one at best. Go to the college everyone goes to, then get married and have kids- or skip school altogether and just start having children. I was hurt so many times by so many people in my small community- my peers who were indifferent to who I was as an individual and their parents who raised them to incubate such negativity. I should thank each and everyone one of those individuals- I wouldn't have had the drive to leave the nest so badly if they hadn't given me a firm push in the behind.
I lived in California for five years.
California. For me it symbolizes freedom and growth- a place to figure out who I am and where I want my life to go. I was nurtured by a small-private school to think globally and now I find myself at a large public institution thinking solely about how I can impact the community around me.
Life. It is what it is I suppose. Who knows where else it will take me? All I know is that around this time next year, I may return to California to find myself once again.
Spring Renewal,
P. Manolos
