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When I got my first passport, I felt like I had a ticket to ride! San Francisco feels that way to me, like an adventure waiting to happen. I visited an art installation across from the port, and the open water called to me. It felt like a place to reach other places. The installation, R-Evolution, a powerful 45-foot female figure, towered over a bustling Embarcadero Plaza. I’d never seen anything like her. Standing and breathing with confidence, naked, she challenged my sense of body confidence and the power I carry. The sculpture’s beauty and flaws have stayed with me. Society is critical of women, and because of that, we have become our harshest critics. Seeing her also felt like freedom and liberation: a ticket to ride.

I visited The End of the World sign in September, which happened to be when the rapture was supposed to happen. It clearly did not. The area was so desolate and vast that it seemed like it could be the world’s end. This part of the desert was the complete opposite of my life in LA, where we have become retrofitted. There was space, and if it had not been so dang gone hot, I imagine I could have breathed air, uninterrupted by sounds or distractions. The art installation was a commitment to build. I wondered how the artist got it there and who built it.  It’s Googleable, I know, but I still haven’t Googled the answers. I’d like to keep imagining. The letters were much larger than I thought and some were worn, and some were toppled by the windstorms. None, however, were broken or destroyed. 

The Hot Springs in Montecito were worth every step, even if the locals acted like they weren’t expecting us. Trying things I never thought I’d try means a lot to me. I was the little Black girl who hated getting dirty and avoided anything that might leave a scar, so never in a million years did I imagine I’d become a hiker. Somewhere between hill and dale, slippery rocks, and getting completely turned around, I realized the same courage that carried my family through the Great Migration was carrying me up this mountain. I wasn’t giving up. When I finally slipped into the warm, sulfur-scented water, I stopped searching for meaning and purpose for just a moment. Black girl magic isn’t always loud. Sometimes it’s simply choosing to keep going, soaking in the moment, and telling yourself, “Girl…just live and shut up.” Stop examining everything and love your life.