I left the Bay on 26 September. I could have stayed another weekend, but caught a Friday flight instead so I could go to one of my best friend’s, Lis’s, birthday party:

It was an album-cover-themed costume party. Who wore it better? 😉

But anyways: reflecting on my time in the Bay.

I have tried to write and rewrite this post several times. I get stuck often on wanting just to analyze my time in the Bay or wanting to elaborate on why it influenced me to go road tripping again.

And while I am certain my readers (friends and family) have already heard about it, I should set the record straight for the blog’s sake: I am going on another road trip. I’m 110% certain of it.

But it wasn’t always 110%. It was never 0%, that’s for sure. Even before the events of the “Epilogue” post occured, even before I made that final drive back to Virginia, I think I was at about 20%. Throughout the summer of 2023, I steadily tallied a list of things I wanted to see at some point in the future because I had missed them (Big Sur), or they were inaccessible (Crater Lake National Park), or because I only heard about them after I’d passed them by (Inyo National Forest). These places, people, sights, they planted themselves like winter wheat deep inside me, waiting, hibernating, biding their time until the winter of discontent melted away.

It’s not fair to say everything after 2023 was discontenting. But a lot went wrong, especially after the inauguration. You know the details.

And I think that’s ultimately what the Bay did for me; at a time in my life when I found myself frozen into my discontent, its sunlight started to melt the ice back. It returned to me the feeling in my extremeties: of pine bark beneath my fingers, of soil between my toes, and of sea breeze blowing through my hair. It warmed me once again to the joy of presence in the world. No deeds to do, no promises to keep. No pasts, no futures, just the all-encompasing present.

For this, I am grateful to the Bay, to my friends there, to California on the whole. I will see it again. I will return the favor of their sunlight.

That’s all for now,

Stay well everyone,

Evan 💙