Day 18 - Your hometown.
ahh, sacramento, california.
the city of trees.
that is where i grew up. born, raised, and where i had lived up until only 7 months ago.
sacramento was really the perfect place to grow up. it was always big enough to explore, but never too big to get lost in. the place i lived in the last 10 years of my life, fair oaks, was the perfect little town. only a 15-minute bike ride from the river, a 20-minute car ride to the lake in one direction and the city in another, and maybe a 30-minute drive up the hill before the smell of pines reach your nose. fair oaks itself even has a quaint little downtown (and by little I mean little), complete with a park, vintage shops and chickens wandering the street. it really is the cutest place.
while i can’t say that i ever took sacramento for granted, by the time i turned 16 and got my own car, there wasn’t a moment i didn’t want to leave that place in the dust. all my friends and the people i met were somehow connected and i hated that. and by my 17th birthday, i had already experienced every part of sacramento that i knew of. i would take drives at night by myself, just to go exploring, to find some new territory that had not yet been discovered. maybe that’s part of how every 16-year-old feels…the longing to stretch their wings someplace new.
it’s funny, because the more i grew up, the more i hated sacramento, yet…the more that sacramento tied me to all kinds of adventures just within reach of its branches.
it’s funny, because the more i grew up, the more i hated sacramento, yet…the more that sacramento tied me to all kinds of adventures just within reach of its branches.
escape and adventure was never so far away. i must have spent hundreds of afternoons lying by the river. taking summer walks in old town sacramento to eat taffy and browse the little shops. dangling our feet off the red bridge and watching the sunset. driving the haunted road out in antelope. sitting up at this park overlooking the city at night and talking about life for hours. on any chosen day, i could just drive up through the hills, through all the little gold rush towns…grab a coffee in el dorado hills [at the naked lounge, mmm, my favorite place :)], then drive on up to placerville to explore the antique shops or drive out to sutter creek for vintage shopping and tea. all those places hold marvelous adventures and memories.
the best adventures were the spontaneous ones. my first one was when i was 16, shortly after i bought my first car. it was late and my friend, joel, and i were figuring out what we wanted to do.
“let’s drive to reno and gamble!” i joked.
“well…how about tahoe?!" joel suggested.
“well…how about tahoe?!" joel suggested.
i jokingly agreed and made my way up highway 50. 20 minutes later, i pulled off the freeway to turn around.
“what are you doing?” joel asked.
"going home,” I said.
he looked at me as if i was insane. “no way! we’re going up to tahoe!”
“you’ve gotta be joking me. we’re really going up to tahoe?”
“yes, we are! now get back on the freeway and let’s go!”
i thought he was insane. the whole drive up there i kept expecting him to tell me it was time to turn around. but he never did. we probably got there around midnight and the ground was covered in snow. all the gates were closed, but joel was determined to see the lake, so we parked out on the street. i was wearing a t-shirt and jeans with only slippers on my feet. and we trudged our way, probably 20 minutes or so, through the snow until we got to the lake. and as soon as we reached the water, i knew it had all been worth it.
the moon was high up in the sky and especially bright that night, illuminating the snow-covered mountain tops and reflecting off the eerily still water. the stars had been strewn across the sky, dancing in numbers i never could have imagined. and in that moment, i remember that i had never felt so small, so beautiful, and so very much alive.
moments like those are what make think sacramento had more up her sleeve than i ever could’ve known. she always drove me away from her borders, but still kept me coming back at the end of the day, different than i was when i left. those are the moments i cherish the very most.
despite all those amazing memories, i can’t say that i miss sacramento. its beauty is too comfortable, like your favorite pair of worn jeans. you can only put them on every so often and remember where you’ve been in them. and they will never cease to feel like home.
that’s what sacramento is to me :)
i thought he was insane. the whole drive up there i kept expecting him to tell me it was time to turn around. but he never did. we probably got there around midnight and the ground was covered in snow. all the gates were closed, but joel was determined to see the lake, so we parked out on the street. i was wearing a t-shirt and jeans with only slippers on my feet. and we trudged our way, probably 20 minutes or so, through the snow until we got to the lake. and as soon as we reached the water, i knew it had all been worth it.
the moon was high up in the sky and especially bright that night, illuminating the snow-covered mountain tops and reflecting off the eerily still water. the stars had been strewn across the sky, dancing in numbers i never could have imagined. and in that moment, i remember that i had never felt so small, so beautiful, and so very much alive.
moments like those are what make think sacramento had more up her sleeve than i ever could’ve known. she always drove me away from her borders, but still kept me coming back at the end of the day, different than i was when i left. those are the moments i cherish the very most.
despite all those amazing memories, i can’t say that i miss sacramento. its beauty is too comfortable, like your favorite pair of worn jeans. you can only put them on every so often and remember where you’ve been in them. and they will never cease to feel like home.
that’s what sacramento is to me :)
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