Rate This City: Day 27 - San Diego

[Ahmen]

My hometown. The GOAT City, especially if you live in a cool neighborhood (and there are many!). Small town vibe with metropolis amenities. I grew up riding motorcycles and horses, weekends in Mexico to the south or LA to the north, beaches, mountains, wine country, Marcus & Damon Allen, Terrell Davis, Eric Allen, Kevin Mitchell, Bill Walton, Cliff Levingston, Pete Wilson. Cal bugs (Volkswagens) and lowriders. GOAT rolled and fish tacos, carne asada burritos, lumpia, pancit, salt &pepper chicken wings and bean pies (strong NOI community). Tritons, Toreros, Aztecs, Padres, Clippers (RIP), Chargers (RIP) PAWGs, PAAGs, (Guamanian, Samoan, Filipina, Vietnamese), latinas, THOTS, girl next door. 32nd Street Naval Shipyard, Top Gun Air Base, MCRD, Camp Pendleton Marine base. Hotel Del Coronado, La Costa, Sea World, Legoland, GOAT SD Zoo/Safari Park, Petco, GOAT Comic-Con, La Jolla, Carlsbad. Back in the day there were no homeless, just bums.

But if you leave, its difficult to return.

 

[murksiderock]

My hometown. The GOAT City, especially if you live in a cool neighborhood (and there are many!). Small town vibe with metropolis amenities. I grew up riding motorcycles and horses, weekends in Mexico to the south or LA to the north, beaches, mountains, wine country, Marcus & Damon Allen, Terrell Davis, Eric Allen, Kevin Mitchell, Bill Walton, Cliff Levingston, Pete Wilson. Cal bugs (Volkswagens) and lowriders. GOAT rolled and fish tacos, carne asada burritos, lumpia, pancit, salt &pepper chicken wings and bean pies (strong NOI community). Tritons, Toreros, Aztecs, Padres, Clippers (RIP), Chargers (RIP) PAWGs, PAAGs, (Guamanian, Samoan, Filipina, Vietnamese), latinas, THOTS, girl next door. 32nd Street Naval Shipyard, Top Gun Air Base, MCRD, Camp Pendleton Marine base. Hotel Del Coronado, La Costa, Sea World, Legoland, GOAT SD Zoo/Safari Park, Petco, GOAT Comic-Con, La Jolla, Carlsbad. Back in the day there were no homeless, just bums.

But if you leave, its difficult to return.

Where are you now and why did you leave; how ling have you been gone? What made it difficult to return if its the GOAT city and your upbringing was so great?

 

[Ahmen]

Where are you now and why did you leave; how ling have you been gone? What made it difficult to return if its the GOAT city and your upbringing was so great?

I left America's Finest City to attend university in Los Angeles, but I'd return home at least twice/month during the first two years away because my girlfriend was local and Moms home cookin'.
The next decade rapidly flew by between the hustle & grind of grad school, career, wealth-building and failed/successful romances. New York has the reputation of being a cruel teacher of life lessons because of the fast pace and grit & grime, but I submit that LA can be equally challenging due to the insidious toll expended mentally and spiritually trying to discern fact from reality in people and opportunity. By the time that I had the means and desire to return to San Diego, both it and I had changed enormously.
My parents took their pensions and home equity and fled to a safe haven to protect their retirement, so returning to my childhood neighborhood was not an option. The once right-of-center, sleepy little town with big city aspirations had become a bona fide progressive metropolis complete with attributed politics and growing pains.
Any time that you leave home to successfully mature, your perspective will inevitably change. But with that, your home changes too - from your view and organically independent of your presence. In my case, Thomas Wolfe was right.