Nostalgia at Full Circle

Today was my 3rd day at my new job in South San Francisco, my 4th job in the eight years I have been living in the Bay Area. 1998 was the year I moved here to be completely on my own for the first time, got my first real job at a company also in South San Francisco. I had my first apartment to myself in San Leandro all the way on the East Bay and I used to take the BART and shuttle back and forth to South San Francisco like it was nothing. Of course, I was only 26, a baby, green, baby green to the world.

Now I am literally down the street from my original old company in 1998, and I am taking the same BART and shuttle I did 8 years ago. As I rode the BART out there from San Francisco for the first time this morning, a rush of memories of the person I was then, of the innocence, of the life of Maile at 26 came rushing back. Wow. And even more so when I was waiting at the same BART station to come home to San Francisco, I smiled to myself with satisfaction at the growth I have experienced over the years, at how far I've come to this point in my life. Amazing, just amazing, smiling to myself knowing what I know now.