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Disclaimer: I'm going to try really hard to write something unique that someone else hasn't observed before. Therefore, I might keep reworking this essay.
The first thing I did when I landed in SF before college started was take a really deep breath. The cool air is a precursor to all the possibilities this city offers. Or at least that's how I like to think about it.
It's been over a month now, so I think I can appropriately comment on this city and how I'm finding it so far.
I don't go nearly as much to the Golden Gate Bridge as I thought I would. This might be a function of the fact that I live in Sunset, that there is no good reason for a 20-year-old to be traveling to Marin, or the fact that the bridge is pretty enough from Parnassus that I don't see an additional reason to travel all the way down to check it out up close. FWIW, I see it every day on the walk from and to work, and that's good enough for me.
I haven't really traveled out to as many ice cream spots as much as I did in Boston ( I think I did Amorino's, Christina's (?), Toscanini's), and here it's only been SF hometown creamery till now. This is partly because I haven't tried all the Ben & Jerry's flavors, and, well, the creamery guys are really good. I need to make another Ghirardelli trip with people before I leave for memories, but I've been more interested in trying out food spots than ice cream.
While yes, it's foggier than I thought, this spell of constant sunshine in the 70s all week is what perfect weather looks like. My mood is significantly affected by the weather, and I think this is some of the best weather I've ever seen in my life, and the only thing I wish was I had made it so I could really just go on all these hikes and read books under trees of all these different parks instead of troubleshooting codex.
The best events where I've met cool people aren't the ones publicly on Luma/Partiful. To paraphrase Ray Fleming, the best vacation houses aren't on Airbnb, the best tickets aren't on Ticketmaster, and you get the idea. You sort of stumble into these events either by knowing people already in the in-group or by following Twitter.
It's also really easy to kinda get sucked into the hivemind that is you need to be raising, or building, or making rage-bait launch videos
My favorite poaster kinda does a way funnier and more elegant job at explaining this phenomenon better than I, so I'll be attaching some of his tweets so you get an idea.
At some point, you have to realize for yourself that these status games will never cease, and the only way to win is to not play in the first place. I mean, I'm definitely not salty Sequoia didn't let me in to their bougie art gallery event ffs I even follow Banksy and listen to Berlioz but, again, I digress.
All this being said, it's still one of the prettiest and coolest cities ever. Waymos represent what the future should look like. No city in the US has better weather, and SF has a world-class food scene second to maybe NYC ¯_(ツ)_/¯. From Watch Dogs 2 to now being here irl, this city will always have a special place in my heart.
roughly 2008 with my dad