On December 3rd, 2016 I decided I wanted to travel alone for the first time. I have been very fortunate in my life to have traveled to many countries and cities with my family but that was easy… why? Because you have traveling experts as parents who take care of you and you become oblivious. I wanted to do this alone. I decided San Francisco would be great start as my amazing and wonderful friend from high school, Jamie Colbert was up there I asked her if it was okay to come up and spend a weekend in The City and she ecstatically answered yes. That’s it. I booked my flight and started counting the days.

UNTIL… My father and I spontaneously decided over my six week winter break to travel to Singapore and India, which is great but little did I know that I was going to be travelling to Singapore, a 17 hour international flight, ALONE. I was brave enough to make it even though I thought I was having heart palpitations the morning before I left and called my doctor in a frantically concerned manner only for him to tell me that I might be too young and healthy to be having those.

After Singapore, going to SFO to see Jamie was a joke. My close friends, Skylar, Alec and Murli decided to drop me off right after class at around 1:30PM as my flight took off at around 3. Well, okay we had time to stop at Chick-Fil-A and grab a bite to eat before we headed over to San Diego Airport. After a loving drop off to the airport, I headed over to my gate, only to realize my flight was delayed by an hour. While boarding the flight, I saw two guys with a Patrick Henry High School bag and immediately my old-time homie, Donald Kay, came to mind. I proceeded to ask them if they knew Donald… of course they did, who doesn’t know of "D-Kay"? Boom, instant friends.

After a short flight of one hour and five minutes, I landed at around 5:30 PM. I followed the crowd downstairs and saw Jamie who came to pick me up at the airport. After an hour long uber-pool ride with an elderly couple and another guy in the back seat, we finally overcame the hill and saw the beautiful San Francisco skyline as we proceeded to University of San Francisco. Right as I entered the dorm, I saw how different it was from USD. There are 8 floors in the dorms versus Camino and Founders which just has one floor. As we made our way onto the 8th floor, we walked down the hallway into her dorm. The door was open and in a semi circle were standing three friendly faces: Chloe and Vivian who are Jamie’s roommates, and Jules. All three were so friendly, welcoming and warm. Chloe was on the taller side, very humble and sweet and could very well be Beyonce’s distant cousin. Vivian had the most beautiful blonde curls and had a very distinct style, which was later matched with her new tattoo on her right shoulder. Shortly, a petite, spunky blonde girl named Maddy walked in, whom I found out later was from San Diego as well. Before we left for dinner I met a girl named, Maria, who was a year older than us because she took a gap year which she described as one of the best experiences of her life.

After changing my clothes and borrowing a turtleneck from Scripps Ranch High’s best dressed winner, we went out to dinner to a Spanish restaurant called “Cha Cha Cha”. In lieu of our 45 min wait for a table, we walked into a famous record store called Amoeba and ran into two friends from high school, Daniel and Angela. Yes, I ran into friends from high school while visiting a friend from high school in San Francisco in a random record store. Destiny much?

After an amazing plate of Paella, Jamie and I hustled out the door to catch our comedy show at Punchline Comedy Club and crack up all night with renowned comedian, Tom Rhodes.

Jamie and I at Punchline Comedy Club

The next morning, I met Anya. A wild, young soul with relentless energy who also was from San Diego. Shortly after, Jamie and I made our way over to The Ferry Building and ate an amazing sandwich while feeling the warm sun kiss our face. We sat on a bench facing the beautiful Bay Bridge… it was then when I thought, “How blessed am I?”

Bay Bridge... Views from Ferry Building

After walking around in the Ferry Building, we stopped for some famous coffee at Blue Bottle. Best coffee I’ve ever had. We ubered to the MOMA museum and appreciated an eclectic collection of art. The MOMA was quite the experience, and not too bad for free admission. ;)

Jamie at MOMA

Photo station at MOMA where you can only see yourself by putting objects on the sensors.. so we put our hands.