Once upon a time, I wrote a post titled “Toto, We’re Not in PQ Anymore…” about my best friend and our shared childhood and how somewhere between then and now, we grew up.
I talk to Bo on a multiple-times-daily basis. She is my rock and I her’s… We’d probably fall apart if we were to be seperated from each other, but somehow by leaning on one another, we form some sort of Tee-pee-esque structure and stay afloat.
Bo recently moved to Georgia, as I’ve mentioned before. And having her on the same time schedule has been angelic. We talk all the time: Morning text, lunch chats, late-night vent sessions.
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Recently, one of the girls Bo and I grew up with had a baby boy with her husband. Bo and I have been talking about it, trying to decide if the recent birth made us feel old or young.
Honestly, it just makes me feel different. I’m 3,000 miles from home working my butt off in some cubicle. The notion of getting married or having kids sounds so far away, it’s almost comical.
From there, the conversation transitioned to other people we went to high school with, particularly the losers we dated. Of all the people I dated or “talked to” or crushed on in high school, none left the state. A couple are in community college, a couple are in UCs or similar schools, and more than one have been through rehab. It’s not like I’m attracted to bad boys (goodness, I’m not). But my school just didn’t have the finest pickings.
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San Diego does not qualify by any means as a small town. But my little corner of the city (Rancho Penasquitos–shortened to PQ) functions very much like some tiny little podunk town. There are two high schools with enough of a rivalry to create stirs, there is one “town center” with the local hangout (Vons shopping center and Jack-in-the-Box, respectively), there are seasonal carnivals and PTAs.
And for as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to get out, to see the world, to try something new. I always felt like my dreams (whatever they were that particular week) were too big for my little neighborhood.
In one of our daily ongoing conversations via various social media and technological networks, Bo wrote “Why do I feel that you and I are the only people from that town growing and changing? Obviously we were born for leaving…” and I got thinking.
Which came first? Was I born for leaving, therefore I grew and changed because I had to adapt in a new world? Or did I grow and change and therefore had to leave to find something bigger and better?
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I’m a city girl now, through and through. I actually looked at apartments with lawns the other day (obviously in other towns) and was turned off by how much space there was between apartments. What personality is there in thick walls? In matching furniture and manicured lawns? How am I supposed to entertain myself at night without being able to eavesdrop on my neighbors late night phone sex?
Whichever came first, Bo, we outgrew our tiny little town. Now, all we gotta do is take on the world. The world is a big place, even if my apartment is 8’x10′. Shi shi shii!!!
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