Like most other high school seniors, the quality of my education was my primary focus in deciding which college I wanted to attend. With that in mind, it was easy to figure out that I wanted to go to San Diego State University—who wouldn’t? So, I accepted their admission and prepared myself to be an Aztec with excitement. It wasn’t until I was left alone in my dorm room on that first day of my freshman year that I actually came to terms with the fact that I would have to live in San Diego for the better part of four years.
At first, it felt like summer camp. Sure, I went to classes and explored the city, and generally had fun living life in San Diego, but it was more of a temporary living space than anything I thought was worthy of being deemed a “home.” Throughout my time at State, however, I’ve come to love San Diego just as much as I love my home in Los Angeles. With all of the unforgettable people I’ve met and the adventures I’ve experienced in the past two years, it would be hard not to.
It’s odd to think that I have the opportunity to call two very different places “home,” but I’ve learned that I don’t have to choose one city over another. Nobody says that I can’t have more than one home, and certainly nobody has ever told me that San Diego can’t be my home if I only live there for half of the year.
As my time at State nears its end, San Diego has become as much of a home to me as the place where I grew up is. And it has nothing to do with the amount of time I’ve lived in each place, either; my two and a half years in San Diego are nothing compared to a lifetime in Los Angeles. The amount of time that you’ve spent in a city doesn’t make a difference when you have people that you can call your family living in it.
Even if I end up moving back to Los Angeles after I graduate from State, I will always be thankful for the years of unforgettable memories that San Diego has given me. Although it may be temporary, this tiny apartment with loud neighbors and a perpetually empty fridge is as much of a home to me as my house in a Los Angeles suburbia is.
I am thankful that I live in San Diego, and I am thankful that I live in Los Angeles. But more than anything, I am thankful for the people that make both cities feel like home.