Swiping through old pics late and night and being reminded of good friends, and food.

North Park, it’s a thing.

Back in college, these cliffs were the closest thing to home in San Diego. Somewhere out there, in that big ocean was Hawaii. This place reminded me of home. The ocean is here, the sunset is here, the swell is here. The city is behind you, and so is everything else.

When you feel seasick on solid ground, you need a place like this.  I needed a place like this. Somewhere to rebalance the scales and clear my mind. However, on this impromptu return to Sunset Cliffs, there was nothing to balance. By chance we caught the sunset and on purpose we stopped to watch it. I wasn’t being reminded of home, I felt right at home. Coming back to a place that made me feel displace, made me feel right.  And that, among other things, is what made this one of the best sunsets yet.

From PV to Silver Lake and the IKEA Carson, last weekend Matt and I played in LA. We went to tea in Beverly Hills and ate ice cream as we walked through shops on Abbot Kinney. We spent hours in cars driving in and around LA and even found ourself in Silver Lake at sunset. We did not get any parking tickets or buy unnecessary things. Everything is always necessary. The weather was hot AF, but we managed. For a minute we thought we were in college again, just doing whatever, whenever because we could! We even went to Ralph’s in Marina Del Rey and ate KC’s Crepes. I didn’t even go to school at LMU, but somehow, all of my friendships made there and in LA, make it feel like home too. Forever grateful.

There are more pictures from this adventure, but for now, just ridiculous photos of us and people vacationing.

Before New York, there was San Diego. My first “home” away from home that I struggled to come to terms with as a place I lived.  Graduating from high school I knew I wanted to go away for college. After watching my sister fight to stay, but then leave anyway, my fate was already decided and I was going. I was lucky to move to a new city where my family, my sister, already lived for five years. My sister even went to the same college and I followed in her footsteps and even studied the same major. Since I watched her struggle, I knew I might struggle too.

My first year of college was difficult. In the first semester, nothing major went wrong, but I was learning about what it was like to live alone away from my family. All my friends were learning. That plus focusing on school (remember, that’s what I was there for) but also making new friends and enjoying a new city. That Fall semester was a rush and a whirlwind. Returning back for my second semester in the Spring things were different. I started to miss home. Finally people were finding their place in school and social groups and I was starting to really see how different life on “the mainland” was from Hawaii. School was more difficult and I put in many more hours of studio time, often not making enough friend time.

Towards the end of that Spring semester I felt very distant from my school and community. Always being from a place where everyone knew each other, I was surrounded by strangers daily. USD was not even that big of a school, yet I felt so small.  I took advice of my advisors and friends and started looking for more things to get involved in. After all, I came from such a busy and scheduled life in high school (school, tennis, clubs, art), it was time for me to make one in my new home.

This struggle and overcoming my first face-to-face match up with “the real world” influenced my art practice for my remaining years at USD.  During my second year, I was more involved in school activities, was able to create the art I wanted to create and of course, got to know San Diego a little better too. A pattern emerged and when it became time of my senior thesis I explored how my present life  brought meaning towards my past and as a senior, my thesis, Please Remove Your Shoes, was born.

For the first time everything started to make sense. I understand that I would not have made it to where I stood as a graduating senior if I didn’t struggle and fight as a freshman four years before. As I continued through my art major, I also kept looking back to my Japanese heritage and Hawaii upbringing as inspiration for my work. That seemed like the most natural thing to do because I knew it best.

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I’m talking about a dime, as in perfect 10, not just worth a few cents. I’m throwing it back on this Thursday to a state I’ve learned to greatly appreciate–California. From top to bottom, east to west, I’ve only really explored a few hot spots of the Golden state. All I have are these memories pictures but I have to say that being here on the East coast has made me long for California more and more. Of course while I was there, I was finding everything wrong with it, and now it seems like there is a lot of right going on with the left side of the USA.

Let’s start from the top, in the Bay. Oakland to be exact. Yes, I always think about what my life would’ve been like if I went to USF and spent four years in the Bay. My guess is my life would be a lot different, but I am so happy with where I’ve been so far. Now with so many ties up north, I can always visit and be guaranteed a good time. One of my first trips after graduating in 2011, we roamed Berkeley and Telegraph Avenue, obviously with the desire to stop at CREAM. Ice cream + chocolate chip cookies–yeah glad I didn’t get those every week or my pants size would be a lot different too. Cookies do rule my world though.

Moving down, how can I ever forget where it all goes down, in  JTOWNNN. Japan Town in Los Angeles. Taken during one of my first trips down to JTown, Japan towns are always so quaint and quiet in wherever they might be. Things are changing, business are moving and I would love to feel like I’m in a little piece of Japan, away from Japan again. Okay fine. I really just want to eat ramen and get mochi.

Last but not least, San Diego. I remember taking this picture during one of my last few months in college. In a part of town that I really only started going to during my last year of college but should have ventured to more often. This is the North Park Post Office. As retro and vintage as it seems, it is. The streets of North Park are filled with stores that take you back to a quieter time. If it wasn’t for that GMC truck and H3 monstrosity behind it, throw this photo in black and white and you might even be fooled about when it was taken.

Leaving San Diego to go to New York was the right thing. The time came for me to close the college chapter of my SD life and change my pace. I could have seen myself living in California longer, maybe in SD, LA, or SF, and I still do. There was only so much I could do in the four years I spent there and so much more I wish to explore. I want to climb more rocks, eat more food, see historic landmarks and make more memories. So far, I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen from top to bottom. So California, thanks for the memories, I’ll be back for more. You better believe it.