Wednesday, July 05, 2006

So Orange County...

So I went home for the weekend. It was, essentially, amazing. You never realize how much you miss a place, how much that place defines you, how much you want to go back to it and feel safe and at home every day. I already miss Orange County, which is really hard to explain, especially since Orange County (some of you may know it as the OC, an objectionable name) is basically the center of all things horrible. I felt so out of place, being the NorCal-ian that I have become over this past year. But still, it's home. It's the place where I can drive around freeways and feel like I can actually drive, the place where I can go to the beach because it's only 15 minutes away, and, most importantly, the place where the friends I grew up with are, the friends who mean so much to me I would go home just to see them, even if I never saw the rest of the county.

In any case, on Sunday the amigos and I had a bonfire at Huntington Beach, which, as always, was good times. Bonfires are like the culmination of everything in me that is Orange County. This one was special, though, because, well, all of us have just grown up so much. It was fun to chill and smoke a cigar in the twilight and lit by the reddish-glow of a burning blaze, to be offered a hookah by some nearby fire-admirers, and to go down to the ocean late at night to see the glow of the moon or to, well, be one with the ocean...if that makes any sense. I stayed up sunday night until like 4AM, as I had Saturday night, just for the heck of it, just 'cause Vincent and Jason and I are basically inseperable when you get us together.

So yeah, I had a great time. Got to relieve a little bit of the longing that I was having to get back home. You know, it's strange how many times home can redefine itself in your lifetime. Maybe not redefine, so much as add more locations that you can call home. For me, home is Orange County, home is Stanford, home is the L.A. Basin, home is the Bay Area - and, in a few months, I'm hoping home will also be Paris. I carry a little piece of each everywhere I go, and that's why each one is home. That's why I am so Orange County, whether or not I want to be.

(This post is dedicated to Hannah, who is rediscovering her home in Latin America, and who insists that I update. Hehe.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

OIIII

1) thanks for dedicating this post to me <3

2) this post was really really nice. it just had a lot of truth in it. and was expressed really beautifully. you´re totally write about bringing pieces of home(s) around all the time.

u´re thebest! and so insightful!!!!

<333

Andrew said...

This is odd. It doesn't say you commented, Hannah. On the main page. Maybe it's cuz you didn't log in? I dunno.