Place Where You Live:

Santa Cruz, California

Santa Cruz, California, it is not my hometown, but it’s where I feel most at home. From the crashing waves of West Cliff Drive to the redwood forests of Highway 17, it is my favorite place to be. Santa Cruz is stereotypically surfer and skater territory. Not only is it stereotyped that way, but that’s how it is. Santa Cruz is a very laid back kind of place. I have spent the majority of the last eighteen years of my life there. From when I was six and my dad would take me, being sixteen and getting my license, Santa Cruz being the first place I drove myself, to now, going home from college for the weekend and that being the place I want to see.

I love Santa Cruz, I cannot put into words how much I do. It will always be the place that holds my heart. I have loved hiking in the redwood forests to cliff jumping off of Highway 1. I have made best friends there, and spent countless summer nights driving around until four a.m., strengthening the bonds I already had. I have spent years going to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in the day when I am as happy as can be, and spent years driving there at two a.m. when I just need time to think about everything going on. Adjusting to college has been really hard for me. I miss my best friend, and it’s times like these where I wish I hadn’t gone so far from home, so that we could go and sit and talk about everything going on in our lives, just like we used to.

Moving on is always hard, but I know that Santa Cruz is, and always will be, my place; my place to go when I’m happy or when things get rough.