9/21: Senior Picnic

Now, I might say I'm from San Francisco, but in reality, I grew up in Piedmont, CA, a small hybrid urban-suburban town about 15 minutes outside SF, completely and totally surrounded by Oakland.  Piedmont is a boring city known for its affluent families and incredibly strong school system.  Add that to easy access to San Francisco and you have yourself the perfect place to raise a family.

I hated it.

Especially my high school.

You might be able to understand, then, that my senior year of high school involved very little "school."  I went to class for three hours per day (yay block schedule!), got a steak burrito for lunch, grabbed an old fashioned chocolate donut from Colonial Donuts (I always think that's so funny looking back now), headed home to watch hours of bad TV (think Bravo daytime), did a little homework, and applied to colleges.  For the most part, I stayed as far away from school grounds as possible.

This video will hopefully give you a little more insight into my high school atmosphere.

Basically, for being in the Bay Area, Piedmonters can be very closed-minded.  It wasn't all bad, though.  The community is small and tight-knit, I had a strong, close group of friends, and looking back, I can appreciate that Piedmont was a nice place to grow up, regardless of how much I disliked it.

Last week, I was fortunate enough to be back in my hometown with my family for the first time since January.

I got behind the wheel of my family's Honda Pilot, the same way I did every day during my senior year of high school (only, at that time, I drove a Chrysler mini-van...yes, I was a soccer mom...it's fine).  But instead of coming home to an enthusiastic chocolate lab (above), I returned to a 10-month-old baby (below) of a family friend, whose grandmother recently passed away, and whose aunt is newly engaged.  I legally drank mimosas at our big "family" brunch (apparently there's a developing theme in my life), and I am constantly thinking about my ever-changing career plans.  I am nowhere near as close with my friends from high school now as I was then, and I've established a pretty incredible life for myself in DC, away from my family and roots.  In the words of the famous Bob Dylan: the times, they are a-changin'.

After running a couple of errands last week, I decided to drive around town to see exactly how much has changed.  Surprisingly (or maybe not), things appear mostly the same as they were four years ago.  I drove past my high school, which boasted on its front sign: "9/21: Senior Picnic."  Reflection ensued.

In the four years since my class's senior picnic, a day the seniors enjoy school-sponsored activities off-campus, many of my friendships from high school have deteriorated, but so many have blossomed at GW.  At the time, I never expected that I would end up in DC, but now, I could barely imagine going to college anywhere else.  At the beginning of my senior year, I was sort of a science nerd, taking AP Bio and loving every minute of it.  Now, I've caught the journalism bug and can't get far enough away from Corcoran Hall.

Just as I was searching for the "right" college four years ago, I now search for the "right" career and the "right" life.  And after running my errands, I grabbed a burrito from The Burrito Shop and the same old-fashioned chocolate donut from Colonial.

I guess the saying is true: the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Peace, love, and nostalgia,

Sam