Leaving the SoCal Nest

When you look at a migratory bird, it’s hard to immediately tell where it originated from, unless of course you’re an amazing aviary enthusiast with an expert eye, in which case then you’d probably have an appropriate conjecture. Otherwise, the least you could sum up is that the bird will eventually make its way south, then back up north again, if what you learned from elementary was still true.

And like the bird, for the past two and a half years I’ve made my way up and down California. Down—to my beloved Oxnard to see my family and friends; up—to get a degree at SFSU while getting away from my beloved Oxnard. It’s not that my hometown is bad; I just went to the extreme of choosing a school so far away, I could prove some kind of independence from my family.

With that said, I have come to love it here in Nor Cal. Before moving up here though, I never realized the So Cal/Nor Cal rivalry. When I say rivalry, I mainly mean differences. I use the word only because the friends I’ve made here like to make it a point that there’s been an ongoing culture war between the two regions for some time now. Perhaps my being oblivious to it all represents that the apparent rivalry is just something So Cal people don’t worry about. At any rate, now that I’ve lived here for some time, I’ve come to see those differences for myself.

Some say the migratory bird migrates south, not because of the harsh cold winters, but to avoid starvation. I often feel the same way, since top ramen lunches and SPAM dinners can really force one to drive six hours south for a decent home-cooked meal. So after I’m stuffed with all the goodness of home again, I fly back to my newfound home in the Bay Area to try to make a living for myself.