It's been my pleasure falling in love with you.

I'm in love. 

And I'm ready to get it out in into the open.

how could you not fall in love with this view? (unedited photo)

Maybe my impending graduation has me all sentimental and mushy, but it's really hit me in the past few weeks that I have really fallen in love with San Diego. 

San Diego has truly become home - my home.

They say home is where the heart is and that will always hold true. Thus wherever my family is will always be my home, my place of solace, peace and limitless love. 

But when in the future when I will reflect back on my young adulthood, San Diego will now forever be remembered as my first love and first home. The first place I truly fell in love with and made my own. It's the place that has come to assure me that I am at the right place, at the right time and where God has matured me, challenged me and given me more blessings than I could even begin to count.

When I applied for school in San Diego, I didn't plan on staying here after. I hoped I would like it but planned on going back home after graduation. In fact, my first two weeks in and I was ready to call it quits. I felt my heart tugging and pulling and telling me I made a mistake, I needed to go back home and be with my family and wait it out a little longer before moving away for school. Four years later I look back and I am so thankful for not calling it quits.

San Diego and I have been through a lot, through highs and lows, good times and bad times. San Diego has seen me grow up.

It has witnessed first dates, last dates, hospital visits, tears, happiness, successes, adventures, opportunities taken and opportunities taken for granted, friendship acquired and memories created. It’s where I signed my first lease. It’s where I signed my first government-related job contract. It is where I moved into a dorm and the stranger I moved in with has become another sister. It is where I got my heart broken and it is where I got my heart healed. It is where I made a lot of student debt and drank so much coffee I got an ulcer. It is where I will soon graduate. It is where I needed to be these past 4 years. It is home sweet home, San Diego.

The past few months the sunsets here have been incredible, just absolutely breathtaking. The end of my work day luckily aligns with the sunset, so I always see the most beautiful sky, painted in dozens of colors which act as the perfect backdrop for the setting sun. 

The view is so beautiful that it has almost been to the point of personal conviction. I will admit that there are days where I am leaving work, and I am just so tired, or just distracted with too many thoughts or mental to do lists. I am distracted with the piling school work and the piling laundry basket and wondering how to get it all done. Then I get in my car and people cut me off downtown and the gas light goes off and I seem to hit every red light when all I want to do is just get home and go to bed. There are those days, they happen. But these sunsets, they have just gotten me every day. They force me to stop, to take a moment and to just breathe. Especially these past few days, you just cannot miss the sun, piercing a sky that has been painted with colors I didn’t even know existed.

I’ve realized how all too often I miss the simple little things because I’m waiting for something bigger. These San Diego sunsets have also made me realize just how much I have to be thankful for. The blessings that have been poured into my life here cannot even be counted. There are simply too many to count.

Beyond the blessings have also many lessons. Lessons about life, love, friendship, family, values, career choices, work experience, bill paying, dorm living, why to never attempt to park in the Gaslamp district on a Friday night and where the best burrito is.

At the end of the day, what I really want to do is be more thankful for this incredible life I have been able to experience. Its easy to complain about red lights and traffic and long days and homework assignments and loan paying but its much better to just be thankful. Thankful for every day. Every single day. And thankful for every fortunate or unfortunate thing that happens to me. After all, the fortunate things may be the enjoyable ones, but the unfortunate ones are the ones that build character and instill wisdom.

So,thank you San Diego, for reminding that every day has the ability to manifest itself in new blessings and new potentials.

And finally, thank you for these sunsets and the reminder of the life I have been given. It's been my pleasure falling in love with you.