The first time I saw San Diego, I didn’t know a single person there. I had just graduated college and there was a week and a half of time between having to move out of my apartment in Albuquerque and returning to Northwest Arkansas where my father lived to start a new job.

I didn’t really have a plan to go to San Diego specifically, but it was a pretty straight shot west from Albuquerque. I was craving an adventure, so I filled up my tank and drove. I spent the first night camping in the Arizona desert, the floor of my tent warped from the radiant heat of the rocks and sand beneath it. By 6am it was blisteringly hot out, so I packed up all my gear, took a quick break at a coffee shop in Tucson and kept driving to the ocean. By late afternoon I was cresting the top of the Laguna Mountains, traffic started flying past me on the 8 west, and suddenly, I was in a city. San Diego began to spring up all around me, green and mountainous, with buildings seemingly perched on the sides of canyons.  I kept heading west until eventually, I reached the Pacific Ocean. I stopped to regroup, look at a map, and I found a campsite at South Carlsbad State Beach. I stayed there for two nights. Sleeping in my tent by the ocean. Exploring the little towns nearby, sitting on the beach, and wondering how people could manage to make a life in a place like this. 

I had no idea that years later I would live there, for over 9 years, then leave, then feel homesickness that I had never felt before or since. 

In about ten days I’ll be home again. It’s weird to call it home because I wasn’t born there, but the way I feel when I’m there is that I have gone home. I notice all the changes in the city. I feel the frenetic, crazy energy that is there again, I soak up all too much vitamin D if that’s even possible and I spend every spare moment visiting the places, people, and things that I miss so much. It’s my annual reset. 

This year I am bringing my cameras again, and while I am already nearly fully booked for the time that I am there, I have a few windows of time that I could add in a couple more sessions. I am so excited to be back again, if only for a few days, to catch up, take photos with some really incredible people, and say hello to my old city. I can’t wait to be back again.