It was late 2012 and after 18 long months I had just saved up enough money to quit my job, travel the world and leave the grey, gloomy skies of England to spend Christmas and see in the New Year of 2013 in sunny California.
I started my trip in Los Angeles. I have relatives living in Santa Monica, LA so I’ve visited several times. This December was different though.
Los Angeles doesn’t go for all out Christmas overkill like we do in the UK and that’s fine with me, I’m not a fan of winter or Christmas. The cold, gloomy, overcast weather replicates my mood. I feel trapped inside and antagonised by Christmas adverts and songs played on repeat as shoppers swarm around the pound shops like hordes of zombies buying useless presents and Christmas tat.
New Year in L.A was a new beginning and more about relaxing and spending quality time with my family before I embarked on my adventures.
On the last day of 2012 I ambled down to the beach and Santa Monica pier. I explored the pier with it’s weathered wooden boardwalk and rustic old fairground charm and watched happy families, tourists and couples as they strolled along the pier. After months of wet and miserable English winter weather the mild temperatures, the smell of the sea breeze and the sun on my face felt so good.
Something about the ocean compels me to it and always has. I stand gazing out at the pacific ocean and enjoying the low, bright sunshine which had been absent from my life, both physically and metaphorically for so long.
I watch the glittery sea making shallow waves that swish in and out hiding and then revealing the wet sandy beach. The rolling in and out of the tide is soothing and therapeutic. This is the moment I realise that the year of dreaming and saving every penny is over, now I am here. New year and the start of a new life. I have arrived! It feels like the Pacific is slowly taking my worries away with every gentle and shallow wave and leaving the wet, glistening beach of beautiful, delicious possibilities of this new year at my feet.
