When people find out that I’m a native San Franciscan they usually follow up with a question. “What was that like?!” I don’t think that my youth was really all that remarkable.

Before Karl the Fog was a thing, I just really liked the fog. This was also the time when people were talking about a hole in the ozone layer was going to get us long before global warming. 

Now that I think about it, I’m sure I was at least partially raised by hippies. We were taught songs about freedom fighters like Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. A favorite day care taker had a yellow car that read, “Big Yellow Taxi”.

For our birthdays, there would be a donation to save the whales in our name, or a star that was named after us. 

A group of us had prom dinner at AsiaSF, a place well known for their female illusionists. 

These are the exceptions rather than the rules. Things have changed and while the city is still very progressive, many of the artists and hippies that once lived here have moved on. 

The City now feel like an ex-boyfriend that I have find memories of when we’re apart, but when we’re back together I realize the reason why we broke up. It will always be my hometown, but I don’t necessarily love the congestion we have now. In the end, I know I find myself coming back here after I move out of the area. There is a special energy to this place that isn’t found other places. I just need to find a homey corner of the Bay to settle down in.