San Francisco
My spontaneous trip to San Francisco…
Let me tell you about one of the most transformative life experiences I’ve ever had.
The short version of this story is that I simply took a trip to San Francisco. I met a few cool people, took some pictures and came back home… and on the surface that’s exactly what I did… but I’m not here to talk about that. I’m here to tell you all about how taking this trip alone has fundamentally changed me as a person.
Throughout the entirety of this trip I experienced a constant overwhelming rush of emotion, so overwhelming I actually caught myself tearing up with joy. Being somewhere different with nothing but my camera was so exciting, I was so inspired to create. I found so much joy in just interacting with people and hearing their stories, simply taking in the local culture.
The thing is people are always talking about San Francisco but I feel like I don’t hear enough about the actual people there. I found so many hardworking individuals that chose The Bay Area as their home in hopes of a better future. I met people that had traveled from other countries to study and others that had traveled from the east coast to work. I met some aspiring musicians and some local shop owners. I took every opportunity to engage in conversation. All go-getters and great people that I will appreciate for the rest of my life.
I’ve been a somewhat reserved person for a majority of my life so landing in a foreign place all alone forced me out of my comfort zone. As insignificant as it may be to someone else it pushed me to be the person to initiate conversation with others. I was open to exploring different places and trying different things. I watched myself become more charismatic than I ever have in just a couple of days. You’d be surprised at how different you act when no one is watching, cause that’s the way I chose to look at it.
With all that being said I’m going to conclude here because if I don’t it’ll sound like I’m saying a lot of the same thing. I’m a firm believer that you shouldn’t minimize life experiences, especially those you grow from. Honestly the location of this trip never really mattered. Sure it was awesome exploring San Francisco for the first time but all that pales in comparison to the personal growth I gained from this trip.
- Israel Marte Jr.
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