Way back when I used to live in Southern California, the
place where I was born. My family and I lived in Yorba Linda, California and we
had a house about a mile away from an elementary school I was attending. All
seemed to be going great, until my parents decided to move to Washington.
I’m totally kidding of course.
But when we first moved north, I was the kid from California. I always told everyone I surfed and was “one with the waves.” Which is total bogus because I have only been surfing once, and that was on a trip BACK to California a few years after moving. But recently, I moved to Northern California for school and decided to spend my summer with my Grandma in So Cal.
I was lucky enough to get hired at the coolest place I have ever worked. It’s called “The Pizza Press” and I give it 5 out 5 stars. If you are ever in the Anaheim area, go to the press. The pizza is bomb and its right next to Disneyland. Oh yea right! Disneyland! Only my most favorite place ever! I was also blessed to have the opportunity to go twice this summer. TWICE! I hadn’t been in nine years, and I killed that streak with two trips.
Anyways…
Today I had to take a good friend of mine from home,
(Washington), to the airport because her visit had come to an end. After
dropping her off, I was once again alone. I decided to go see the last place I
lived in before we set off to Washington all those years ago. It was what I
would call a normal Southern Californian drive. Meaning traffic of course, but
I didn’t really seem to notice. What I did notice, however, was a feeling I
wasn’t familiar with. It was a sudden strange feeling of emptiness that almost
brought me to tears. I waved goodbye to my good friend that I have known for a
long time and was immediately back in “one-player mode.” I realize now that I
shouldn’t be alone anymore. April to the present has been mostly just me by
myself living life. It’s not who I am, I thrive for the company of close
friends….but back to my drive…
As I pulled up to the school, flashbacks from the playground
and the school’s open field came upon me. I remembered the friends I had and
the days I spent there. Cub scouts and skateboarding were the two things I
remember most from the second grade. Also that my teacher’s name was Mrs.
Powers…and if you know me, that’s one of the reasons I began to go by AJ.
The flash backs of the school began to subside as I drove down
the street of the house I remembered the most. This house is the house that I
first watched Back to the Future and Star Wars in. It’s where I played
countless hours of street hockey and hit a golf ball at a neighbor girl’s car
(I dented it pretty good from what the folks say). This house has held such a
large portion of my memory for so long that as I stared at my old home, I
realized that it was a lot smaller than I remembered.
As I drove (slowly) back to Grams’s, I didn’t listen to any
music, I just sat in the quietness of my thoughts, and my frequent beat boxing.
I remembered so much and it was quite the experience to see how small my large
memories really were. I can’t wait to show my kids that place one day and tell
them story after story.
And this has turned into a lot more than I originally
planned, but whatever. If you read this far, you are an amazing person because
I’m sure this was hard to get through. So to close this I shall say that my
summer in So Cal ends in two days. It’s been quite the summer and I really don’t
look forward to starting up school again!
This blog stuff could get addicting….
Cheers
@JS
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