where the sidewalk ends

For many reasons, including the ever increasing price of fuel, but mostly due to my brakes needing repair, I had the pleasure of walking home from work today. Let me preface this by saying that the walk itself, despite the many years that have passed is far too familiar to me. You see this was a walk (both in parts as well as a whole) that I used to encounter on a daily basis during junior high. The walk from shoemaker which at one point was school (whitney) and is now work (best buy), through the cerritos towne center and to the library was a staple of my early adolescence, and as I strolled through the windy cerritos sidewalks, I was flooded with memories of youth, innocence, rebellion, sexuality and sheer joy.

If those sidewalks could speak, they would have some serious and absolutely ridiculous stories to tell. As I walked I not only thought of the memories that I had made along this very path, but I also thought about how newer and younger generations were probably enduring the very same angst and excitement which we all deal with at that age, and in many ways forever will. The only difference being that youth brings with it a certain naiveity, after all what I complained about at that age, paled in comparision to any of the "real" issues facing me today. But obviously that is only in retrospection because, despite all that is told to you when you are young regarding how easy you really have it, you cannot fully comprehend it until you find yourself at an age when you can look back and think "life was so much easier then".

And so as I continued to walk, I was transported back to that age as specific moments like walking in the rain, messing around in the bushes, taking the cow, prank calling on pay phones, the library itself and overall tomfoolery seemed almost tangible. Of course much like youth, it was fleeting, in the sense that my fast paced walking seemed to pass these locations as soon as I spotted them. But the walk itself, was in a sense a bit of momentary time travel, one where my feet met the footprints of my past and reminded me that I am still here for a reason, and that no matter what I may complain about now, it is up to me to continue walking towards my goals and towards a brighter future.

fin.