how we got here, part 1
Since the beginning of the year, I’ve had very few moments where my mind hasn’t been focused on parenting, working full-time and uprooting our lives to follow a dream. Our story is full of rises and falls, starts and stops, success and setbacks. From an outsider’s perspective, this may have looked like an effortless transition but it was not a breeze every step of the way. I heard someone once say that there are no finish lines in life, only more opportunities to show you what you’re capable of. The past year and a half has been just that - making something out of what we had in lock step my lottery ticket of a partner, Taylor. The last year has been a testament to our grit and tenacity. We created beauty within the cracks and held a profound appreciation for the emotional, spiritual and physical work put in that has led us here.
As a kid, I was always drawn to the Pacific Northwest. My grandparents would leave LA to rent ranch homes in Mendocino for months at a time, and my parents would take my brother and I to visit them. We were surrounded by the sound of calm, deep redwood forest hikes where you could hear the crunch of thick layers of fallen leaves and gaze at the treacherous ocean that reminded you of your mortality. I was young then, but I understood. Trips to Mendocino were some of the happiest moments in my childhood.
My grandparents at their long-term ranch rental in Mendocino
Always feeling like a bit of a misfit in LA, I knew I’d end up north. My introverted demeanor and life in LA taught me how to be a pretty good chameleon to “fit in”, but deep in my soul I never felt home. It wasn’t just the beautiful nature that drew me, but the lifestyle and like-minded community that values good food, environmental and social awareness, and with little care for the glam and glitz that came with LA.
Little did I know, there was a boy my age experiencing something similar not too far away. In his childhood, Taylor’s family would vacation frequently in Lake Arrowhead. Though his choice of activity at that time was usually video-gaming, he appreciated nature and the beauty of it. Somewhere between growing up alongside a park with towering Pines and weekend trips into the mountains and forest surrounding Lake Arrowhead, he developed a kinship with nature and fascination with the trees. Later in life, he took a trip to Northern California while in Architecture school and similar to me, knew it was where he belonged.
It was not long after we started dating that we realized our dreams for Northern living were aligned. In the last 12 years, we spent most of our vacationing time in San Francisco, Portland and around the Pacific Northwest. With every trip, it only took about 10 mins before we were on Zillow and Redfin jokingly asking ourselves why we were in LA. It became a story that we’d always tell people, that we were destined north. With razor sharp focus throughout our twenties and early thirties, little did we know that every decision was leading us there. Then the pandemic hit and the universe gave us an opportunity of a lifetime sooner than we had planned.
stay tuned for part 2 of this story….