When I was seventeen, I headed west with my parents to tour California schools. The UCLA and Pepperdine campuses were beautiful, but the biggest takeaway of the trip was catching my first wave on a longboard in Malibu. I ended up writing an admissions essay about the experience and submitting it (ironically) to the land-locked University of Texas. My surfing career was over as swiftly as it began. But the experience stayed with me, and I often found myself daydreaming about what I decided was the most poetic of sports. Surfing is an almost perfect metaphor for life: all these years I’ve been trying to catch waves (in work, love, and life) and I’ve had some pretty amazing rides so far. I still believe the Big One is coming — all I have to do is recognize it before it’s too late. In a more literal sense, I’m looking forward to visiting the surf village of Sayulita this summer and hopefully standing up on a board again. I may never be a real surfer, but I can always think like one. Hang ten, y’all.
image sources: blogger lucy williams on boat from fashion me now, bulletin board from panchamama boutique in sayulita, outdoor sitting area at hotel escondido, girl with board from sundance beach, blue waves found via anthropologie, grass roof hut image from swandive, family dancing on beach from gypset travel, promotional art for the 1966 film The Endless Summer, girl with pink board found via pinterest, photo of jane birkin by jeau kirby, blue waves at bottom found via a well traveled woman
