Reflections from 2005

This framed photo was developed from one of four disposable cameras from my first solo trip away from ‘home’ when I flew from Atlanta to California in October of 2005.

Meditating on the photo, I felt I could write again and took a picture of it to include in this post. Though annoyed with the reflection from the cheap glass used at a Lao framers shop, I chose to use it to my benefit. It is in this photo of the Bay with Alcatraz in the distance that, for nine years, I always (always.) see a reflection of myself.

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I see myself framing this shot through the lens of that disposable camera on the rooftop of a new friend’s place. I feel the breeze whipping my hair across my face. It’s constantly in my way but I manage to snap the shot. I scan the panorama; rooftops are littered with people waiting for the Blue Angels to cut through the cloudless sky. and I breath in.

And everyone was right. The air is different here. The sun is different here. California — a place I told myself I would never see and I’m seeing it, feeling it, breathing it. It’s overwhelming.

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I grew up in a town in South Carolina with a population of a little over five hundred people in the 1980s. No one ever told me I would never get to see California. I haven’t figured out why, but I told myself I never would.

In July of 2005, I met a group of happy folks from San Francisco. I remember saying, “You’re from California. Wow, I’ll never get to gothere!”. The response was novel. “Why not? Just buy a ticket.”

that ticket changed me.