30 years and a skateboard

2011, Downtown Los Angeles. Pushing my skateboard down the middle of 3rd Street. Somewhere between Central and San Pedro. Sometimes referred to as Little Tokyo, Otherwise known as the safe version of skid row, which is roughly 3 blocks to the south. It’s warm… 62 degrees at 1 a.m. A “to-go” coffee cup disguises an IPA as I roll through an intersection. Relative calm inside the downtown streets offers solace to a reluctant visitor. The Los Angeles skyline is impressive. The buildings absorb me the closer I get. Rolling along, looking up at the 1,037 ft. US Bank tower, it occurs to me….

… I envisioned this once. When I was 17 years old. A swell of warm comfort washes over me.

Age 17. Being a skateboarder in eastern Washington State was not easy in 1997. The magazines mostly showed photos from the skateboarding holy land of southern California. Los Angeles was THE destination. I want to be there. I want to be skateboarding when I am 30 years old.

Well… here I am. 30 years old and skateboarding toward the buildings I saw in the magazines. Is it what I expected? No. But nothing in life ends up as expected. But it’s nice once in a while to have that feeling in your gut. The feeling that you are in some way fulfilling your teenage dreams. Even if that feeling only lasts a few seconds.