Maybe it’s a weird way of looking at things, but my high school definitely became a second home. I mean, I was there seven hours a day during the school week four years of my life, and I spent even more time on campus to attend events, or during tech weeks and conservatory projects. I even spent twenty four hours there during the Moby Dick Marathon (a story for another time).

And, since I’m visiting my home here in San Diego, I decided to stop by Canyon Crest Academy as well! Campus is changing a bit. There are construction projects going on, and the largest incoming group of freshmen the school has ever seen. I was worried it would feel too different, that the vibes could never be the same. I like to think I attended CCA in its golden years, but I am happy to report that it felt just as much of a home as ever.

My friend Torrey and I visited teachers and wandered the campus. I breezed through the breezeways, with the Santa Ana winds blowing. I remembered how to maneuver my way through staircase traffic when the lunch bell rang. I waved at Hector in his golf cart, sat at the cafeteria lunch tables, watched seagulls fly overhead. Every beige building was familiar and calming. The adventure reinforced something my mom mentioned to me a couple days ago. At home, I can be on autopilot. I know how things work at CCA, in San Diego, in my own house. I save energy when my brain is working within a learned routine.

Shoutout to Torrey for being such a model in this lunch table selfie

It’s also a relief to be familiar with everyone on campus. Even after graduating, being at CCA gave me a million familiar faces to say hi to. People I’ve spent years learning with, people I only knew for a bit, people I had just passed in the halls and come to know as “that kid with that one cool backpack.” I miss them! I said hi to people that I didn’t expect to run into, and every hello and every conversation filled me with so much joy. It was so good to see familiar faces, and so good to feel known.

It’s been really fun being surrounded by new people at Oberlin. I was worried it would just exhaust me, but the social aspects of college have felt good so far. I can’t wait until I have more familiar faces to run into, people I recognize from past classes and past years. It probably won’t ever be quite the same thing. I mean, in high school I would bump into people I’d gone to school with since kindergarten. (I still get to have that when I run into Kara at Oberlin!)

The ever lovely Kara!!! <3 <3 <3

Besides, even at CCA, there were some people I didn’t discover until senior year, when it shocked me to my core that there could be someone on campus I’d never seen. I just have to keep meeting as many people as I can by trying out different activities on campus and exploring all the opportunities and places Oberlin has to offer. Soon enough I’ll have people to wave at in every hall I walk down. It all comes with time.

I don’t quite have an autopilot setting in Oberlin yet. I’m still figuring out how to exist as a college student on an unfamiliar campus. I’m figuring out local weather patterns (the weatherman wasn’t lying when he said it was gonna rain?!), and new pastimes. But that’s okay! One day, Oberlin will be just as much of a second home as Canyon Crest Academy, maybe even as much of a home as my house in San Diego. That won’t take anything away from any place I’ve called home in the past. That level of comfort is something I can look forward to. Learning how to achieve that level of comfort in a new place is a skill I can look forward to using in life, to explore the world and make the world at large a home. For now, I have to remember that loving CCA as much as I did took four years, not a day. Even though I only remember the easy parts, the part where I felt like I hit my stride— that came with time. I was happy working toward it, and so happy when I felt it. I can do it again.

This makes no grammatical sense, but it's sorta exactly what I'm trying to say!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯