16-year-old me would love this

It has been about 2 months since I moved to San Francisco.

In these two months, a ton of stuff has happened. I explored the city on my electric skateboard, made new friends, started to work, made new friends, moved into my first place and so much more. And a thought that keeps reappearing is that 16-year-old me would love this right now.

There is a simple moment that made me realize this overarching feeling. Every Wednesday night, a few of the friends I made invite me to go play volleyball at a park in a San Francisco neighborhood called the Marina. The spot we play is just by the water, and you can even see the Golden Gate Bridge from there.

A few weeks ago, it was really an unusually hot San Francisco day, and the sky had been steel blue the whole day. So when we started playing at about 6pm, it was still warm, and we could overlook the entire bay. As we played and the sun slowly set behind the Golden Gate Bridge, softly lighting Angel Island, Tiburon and the bay, it was just magical.

And it was at this moment where the thought crossed my mind. If 16-year-old me would get offered a contract that would put me in San Francisco by 22, working with camera’s all day, he’d sign it in a heartbeat.

Ever since then, the thought crossed my mind a couple more times, and I think it is really helpful to put things into some kind of perspective. A bad day at work can be disheartening, as can be a lonely weekend day. However, in these moments, I come back to how amazing it is to actually be here. The thought doesn‘t turn an annoying workday into a great one, neither does it give ideas on how to spend the Sunday in a more social way. Nevertheless, 16-year-old me would also take the tradeoff off being here for the few below-average days at work.

16-year-old me would be pretty amazed at where I’m at, and also pretty happy to be here. So 22-year-old me does his best to make sure that future me can say the same thing while enjoying the moment. For somebody like me, who often thinks ahead, almost forgetting where he is now, stoping and looking around every once in a while is great. Even though I tend to get caught up in my day-to-day life, my day-to-day issues and whatever else I got going on, reflecting on where you already are is a great thing. And doing that with my 16-year-old me makes it a bit more fun.