2008

Tonight's Christmas Eve service was bare, but my family and a few other families we knew attended. I enjoyed singing the Christmas carols that I had memorized from years of tradition though. There is an aspect of reflection that comes with church, forcing you to think quietly. So I recalled the year 2008.

A lot happened this year. As usual I boomeranged into adulthood and grew up and out of my home.
To get some perspective of how far I've come and how I've returned, I'll start with the beginning of the year. Winter Quarter 2008, I was the new president of the American Sign Language club at South Puget Sound Community College. Jobless, but I had a place in the academic world. Finishing High School and Community College. The spring led into summer with graduating. Flying to Washington D.C. Taking Oceanography and Piano. Getting a job at Kmart. So here we are August.
I turn 18, smoke cigars, work a 8 hour shift at Kmart and go to dinner with my boyfriend, my family and a girlfriend of mine at Red Robin. It is not until August 1st that I learn I am accepted to the University of Washington in Tacoma. I attempt to move out into Court 17. Sudden Change of plans I move in with my brother in the apartments down from Court 17. Fall rolls around. I move out and start school at the University of Washington.

Amazing. One thing after another happens in my life. I graduated from high school, from Community College, moved out, turned 18, found my soul mate aka boyfriend and became the Editor of a Literary Arts Magazine. Huzzah for the Tahoma West!!

So now I am home in Olympia. I come home every weekend practically and came home for the holidays this year. I have two lives. One in the city with my brother, fast paced with freinds and college. One in Olympia with best freinds and family. All the while keeping my grades up and stacking on the college credits

Wow. I am quite the person. Still with now job and no money. I feel like I have nothing sometimes.

Take back the City tonight.

Riding away from my apartment, I passed the giant residential home for Asian
Elders. Across from it is the Bicentennial Pavilion with a park nestled in the corner. Well fed
trees are lit up for Christmas time adding to the always burning city of lights. Turning right on 13th Avenue of Market street, the pleasantry deteriorates as I go uphill. With my brand new apartment complex in the background, I see a half torn down building in front of me. Next to it is Tacoma’s history in graffiti on bricks. National Rent a Fence has blocked it off, but the windows and doors are broke through, making it susceptible to vandalism. Stairs once leading up through a building now ascend into thin air.
Where this building once stood is now a graveyard and vandalized and littered. How come the city hasn’t reconstructed this block but has built new apartments? As I continued to ride west on my white bike, I noticed green, pink and other off color odd looking houses. Riding down Fawcett Avenue I reached Abbey’s ballroom. Again with the lights bright those are forever on. The miniature houses and the small ballroom didn’t look housed by the rich, rather original. I was filled with an unsurpassable amount of jealousy. Because I lived in a box prison as my dad calls it. The ugly apartment housing disgusts me when I see these unique houses with green fenced in yards that are a street away from where I live. I didn’t there was green grass in the city, let alone antique houses.
Learning about the history of Tacoma meant I further uphill to the hilltop area. A place I thought it’d be safer to avoid. So I zigzagged down the streets while passing an occasional salon. The high buildings which are unique to the city kept my attention though. I felt like a magnet being drawn to downtown where everything happens. The further I went towards the skyscrapers and the light, the more stores I passed. They were the “city breed” of shops though, which is a whole other type of vendor than those you see in rural towns.
The glamour and darkening sunset behind me illuminated the colors of the lighted shops as I rode through Broadway Street. I want to live on Broadway now. My eyes are widening and a million and one thoughts are rushing through my head. There are dazzling spaces that people occupy that I’ve never seen before. I see art galleries, grand restaurants and fancy grills. This is what brings me to the city. The life and flashes of excitement that I get when I ride around buildings that have ten different purposes. Broadway is where you should go to eat foreign food, buy expensive art and get your hair done by city hipsters; unfortunately you’ll consequently go broke.
Well that is unless you have a high paying fancy job in the city. You might work at a useless looking company who’ve tacked their logos on sharply designed offices and put you in a cubicle. Staffing group. What an awful name for a business, what can all those great looking people possibly be accomplishing? Giant windows act as magnifying glass for the cubicles on Broadway Avenue. I smile as one woman munches on a chocolate bar while looking over post it notes pasted on typed up reports. Looking over to do lists? Next to her is a large computer. These office cubicles and business are everywhere down here. I can’t imagine working in a cubicle forty hours a week. These people must be out of their minds. Luckily I made it passed the cubicles without catching any flies in my mouth.
Sitting in the Subway inches away from the Theater district of Tacoma, I notice a brightly lit Christmas tree. It’s taller than the glittering Pantages sign. Dare I continue into this theater district? Mass Transportation roars behind me as a man runs to catch it. Do I go to the transit station on Commerce Street at night? Or do I follow my irrational fears and return home? I’ll return home and keep this positive image of the city as a place to work, eat and live the party life. I’ll keep the city of lights as an image in my mind. I’ll continue to be drawn like a magnet by the sky scrapers as place to live and work. Obviously my fears and imagination shifts as I travel through the city. From the fear of hilltop and going too far into downtown to the silly fascinations I have with all the brightly lit art galleries and foreign restaurants. These are the affects that city imagery has on us though. Their powerful and can change behaviors.