on san francisco

I first moved to San Francisco in 2021. The city had emptied out due to the pandemic, and rent was unbelievably cheap. I hauled my belongings up three flights of stairs to a walk-up in Lower Haight. I had four roommates. Two worked in tech. Six months in, we discovered they'd been padding the rent total, pocketing the difference to lower their own share. It was a great start. I've moved in and out of the Bay Area for most of my life. When strangers ask about my hometown, I've got it down to a fifteen second answer: military brat, born in Turkey, bounced up and down California. The longer version is that my grandfather was in the Air Force, stationed in Turkey where my mom met my dad, created me, and moved to Sacramento. That’s where my mom met my stepfather, a horribly behaved Marine who moves us to Pleasanton, then San Diego, then San Ramon. All of that to say, I consider the Bay Area my hometown. I flew kites at César Chávez Park in Berkeley, slurped soup out of a bread bowl just und

I first moved to San Francisco in 2021. The city had emptied out due to the pandemic, and rent was unbelievably cheap. I hauled my belongings up three flights of stairs to a walk-up in Lower Haight. I had four roommates. Two worked in tech. Six months in, we discovered they'd been padding the rent total, pocketing the difference to lower their own share. It was a great start. I've moved in and out of the Bay Area for most of my life. When strangers ask about my hometown, I've got it down to a fifteen second answer: military brat, born in Turkey, bounced up and down California. The longer versi