An Ode to San Diego

When you move somewhere totally foreign to you, everything is new. You never know where you’re going (I don’t at least!), and you don’t yet have go-to places and familiar faces. You go through this surreal time when you keep thinking, “Do I really live here now?”

When I first moved to San Diego, there were so many unknowns. My husband and I had recently gotten married, and he was fortunate enough to get San Diego as his duty station in the Marine Corps. We didn’t know if he’d get deployed anytime soon, and once we arrived in a cross-country move from Florida, where we lived for a short stint while he was training, we found out that he would be getting deployed in just a couple of short weeks.

Moving 2,500 miles from family, then finding out I’d be there alone was an overwhelming prospect. I remember when we found out, I said, “Well, I better get out and make some friends!” 

And just like that, I was just a girl in her early 20s, discovering what life was like in California all on my own. I put myself out there and made some great friends (women I still am close with now), and explored the area and found places I loved. Gradually, a funny thing happened: San Diego went from this strange place I was now living, to my second home. I’ve moved places that never quite felt like home, but San Diego came to feel like home in my heart. I fell in love with it.

While I adore California as a whole, when I moved up to the Bay Area after my husband got out of active duty, it didn’t feel quite the same. Ultimately, we decided to move back to the San Diego area to buy a home, where we’ve lived for the past 4 years.

I knew that I wouldn’t always live in California, and I let that drive my mindset so that I would never miss an opportunity to do something new and exciting, or even something comfortable that I had done/seen many times and loved, in the area. Every sunset I could make at the beach, I went to. Every yoga session I could do with my toes in the sand, I went for it. I journeyed on countless road trips exploring this massive, beautiful state. I wine tasted all over California, including Napa, Sonoma, Livermore, Paso Robles, Temecula and more. I hiked countless trails all over the area. I skied for the first time in Lake Tahoe.

I went paddle boarding and kayaking in the Pacific, my heart raced during mountain biking workouts, and I had a somewhat terrifying, very memorable anniversary weekend one year hiking Catalina Island. I jumped out of a plane with my husband for my 30th birthday. Now, as I journey across the country from San Diego to live in the New York/Connecticut area, I can confidently say that this Jersey turned California girl lived life on the west coast to the fullest. I have no regrets about things I didn’t do, because I did just about everything I had the chance to.

Over the years, I would go back to my home state and feel like perhaps I was different. But what I’ve come to realize is that my perspectives have changed. Living across the country in California, experiencing military wife life, traveling all over the world during these years, it all shaped me.

I also really honed in on what my passions are while I’ve lived here: I fell in love with the outdoors as I discovered hiking as one of my favorite forms of exercise, and I became a locavore that regularly peruses farmers’ markets and local farm stands, and supports small business whenever I can. Starting this blog, earning a holistic health coaching certification, starting my own business doing health coaching, freelance writing and journalism work – it’s all changed my life and given me new happiness. I’ve gone to so many health, fitness, and food events that have given me the opportunity to meet new people and make friends I never would have known otherwise. Some of the closest friends I’ve made here, I met in person after we initially connected on social media bonding over shared interests.

It was Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., who said, “A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.”

This quote embodies how I feel about my time in California. It’s broadened my horizons and helped me to grow. What I know now is that living in California hasn’t changed me, it’s made me more of who I’ve always been. I came to California a young newlywed who wasn’t sure what life had in store for her, and I’m leaving California a bit older, a bit wiser, and most definitely more me. Just as when I moved here, in leaving California, I’m still not sure of what life has in store for me, but I know that whatever it is, it’s going to be lovely. I know now that I mostly enjoy not having everything plotted out. After all, what is life if not for a great adventure?

San Diego, it’s not goodbye, it’s see you later. You have become a great love in my life, and I am forever grateful for the years I experienced here.