Over 6,000 days of my life have been spent in San Diego, California.

To other Californians, I am a San Diegan. I have spent a fair share of those 6,000 days along the coast, cherishing each beach from Point Loma to Carlsbad, I obsess over sunshine, I maintain a balanced diet of chai lattes, sandwiches, burritos, and açai and my friends and I watch the sunset as an activity.

To everyone else, I am a Californian. I surf, swim, practice yoga, eat an abundance of avocados and fulfill many other stereotypes, happily.

California raised me, thank God, to find wonder everywhere I go and the choice to leave good where ever I go next. So naturally, preparing my farewells has been challenging. You can say "I'll miss you" but California won't say it back. I like to think California knows I'm leaving, taunting me with the sky's alluring purples and pinks and charming yellows painted onto fields of wild flowers, or that time of the day where the water mirrors the setting sun and has a shimmer.

I have always deeply appreciated these Works for they nurture my faith, and the crazy part is it is like this everyday. Everyday the sky glows with some sort of color, there is always a wildflower to find and the ocean always returns to shore.

The colors of California have set tone to my mind of the endless possibilities of everything. California is a constant; unwaveringly beautiful, inspiring and just straight up dreamy.

And the people, oh my goodness the people, to put it shortly: they are just as dreamy as their state. Not just in physical appearances but the whole magical aspect. There is such diversity in California that creates a captivating eccentricity to it's people. Kind, weathered, gentle, passionate and all explorative within their own ventures. Like the wildflowers I admire so much, the people too are always growing and are painted a happy color.

Risk is inevitable when loving anything so much that it becomes apart of you but I will gladly take the risk to know what feeling so attached and in love with one place feels like.

My parting words, California, are thank you for letting me live whatever life I wanted, the freedom is now a standard and loved dearly, I'd hug you if I could. Oh, and of course I'll be back.