Saved Me, San Francisco

The best three months of my entire life. Those words sum up my SF experience to a T. It was an experience like none other in my life, where I dared to step so far out of my comfort zone on so many different fronts.

San Francisco was lesbian flatmates and Peruvian food and lazing in Dolores Park and oh so much wine. It was Diwali dinners with some of the most intelligent people I’ve met, tweeting live on the Piers Morgan show on CNN, working in an American office and learning to talk the American talk. There were adventures to Berkeley to eat famous pizza, barbeques in San Mateo, BART rides to Oakland, wine tours in Napa & Sonoma, food marathons in Sausalito and farmers markets across the Golden Gate bridge. There were weekends that started with happy hour on Friday night and ended hungover on Sunday afternoon. It was discussions on the presidential elections with my flatmates, my best friend’s masala chai, dancing till the break of dawn at Mayes and Matrix and Naan ‘n’ Curry and getting kicked out of the Hilton. It had the most amazing sushi, Thai green curry, empanadas, kati rolls, sea salt caramel ice cream, ceviche, quinoa and roasted organic veggies I have ever had. It was three months spent reinforcing a friendship, falling in love with a cat and a dog, a few blurry drunken experiences, a crazy 25^th Birthday weekend with my best friends from across the continent, Occupy Wall Street, walking endlessly in high heels to find a cab at night and desperate attempts not to stare at the naked people walking on the streets. San Francisco was the most exotic cocktail of random experiences, the very essence of the city everybody falls in love with.

I lived across from the most inspiring place in the world – Dolores Park. Everyday I walked across the park to get to the MUNI stop and it took my breath away every single time. I don’t think people get high by smoking or eating special brownies in this park – the Dolores Park view will suffice. It was my daily reinforcement – to believe in my dreams that got me there and to follow them no matter what.

My favourite and most important SF lessons include some interesting phrases developed by the people I met there: “F*** it, one life” and “There’s no downside to that”. And they are phrases to live by. I made a promise to myself then: to push my limits, step out of my comfort zone and give everything a shot, even when it terrifies me. Especially when it terrifies me.

Leaving this beautiful city, as much as I had hoped I wouldn’t have to, didn’t sadden me. Because I had lived. I had achieved all the things I wanted to do in that phase of my life.

Now I move on to the next phase. I have a few ideas for what it should entail, but whatever happens, I want to make it count. San Francisco set the bar high!