Coffee, rain, street markets, jazz musicians, the Space Needle, and shopping plazas. All of these are found in the cozy city of Seattle.

Every year for winter break I visit my best friend in Seattle. We spend days on end shopping downtown at boutiques and shopping plazas, buying coffee, and studying in coffee shops.

Seattle is the hometown of Starbucks and is the setting for the TV sitcom “Grey's Anatomy." The weather is relatively warm for a northern city in America. Although the winter gets chilly, it seldom snows.

My friend and I have a favorite Korean restaurant in Capitol Hill called BlueStone. Whenever we have a long day of touring downtown we end the day at this locally-owned restaurant. Their bibimbap brings tears to my eyes because it is so delicious.

Honestly, Seattle instantly felt like home to me because I was with someone I love and their community is very accepting. Seattle is notorious for their large LGBTQ+ population and continues to attract a lot of Asians since it is the closest U.S. City to Asia. When I go there, I hear Koreans speaking in public every day, and it instantly felt familiar.

My mother was born and raised in Korea so she passed on a lot of her culture and her language to me and my sister. It's not often that I bump into a Korean in Cleveland, so it felt nice being around people from a similar background as me.

On top of that, the city is liberal which pretty much matches most of my morals, so I was surrounded by a lot of people who are not only active in politics like me but stand for the same beliefs as me (unlike a state that voted for Trump).

My dream school, the University of Washington, is in Seattle. I'm applying to there for my last year as an undergrad in the fall of 2019 after I graduate high school in the spring.

Suprise! I'm a senior in high school. This is my second-year full time at Cleveland State, hence why I am writing for the Cleveland State Odyssey. I love Seattle so much that I am also willing to move there even if I don't get accepted into UW.

My friend attends Bellevue Community College which is right across from Lake Washington, so worst comes to worst, I can obtain an associate's degree there for a semester or reapply to other schools in the Seattle area.

Seattle really is a beautiful sight in the daytime and during the night. When the sky is clear you can see the Cascade Range from the city and it is just breathtaking.

If any of you are planning to take a trip out West, I would definitely recommend Seattle!