Independence Day

I'm now back on the West Coast after spending some good quality time with friends and realizing that I'm perfectly ok with giving up desert air and beach-ness for real community. Being around weddings and other couples reminds me why The Philosophress was so enchanting in the first place (I wish I could say I knew this all along but, as the saying goes, a stopped clock is right twice a day). She and I are so different, in our interests and the way we perceive life, but I've realized that I need exactly someone as radically different as she to force continued growth. Someone more similar would fall into my habits and likes/dislikes and we'd do a lot more "growing together," which is not always the same as "growing upward."

It's a high-risk, high-reward sort of arrangement. The bad times can get pretty hairy, but the good times are both encouraging and rewarding. Life in SoCal appears to me to be inherently small, filled with routine in the pursuit of the break-even point as everyone else appears to be miles ahead (there's a reason why no one in their mid-20s lives here). Quite honestly, I'm not sure I would have had the strength nor the conviction to reach out on my own and try another part of the country and the freedom it affords. I certainly have encountered resistance to moving outward and upward, even when it's for good reasons.

Conversations over the past several days remind me that we as people are more excited when we're pursuing our passions -- and I'm definitely more comfortable wearing green Doc Martens in the snow and playing the guitar instead of playing the role of office peon.