Wednesday, January 14, 2009
1st Day in San Diego
It's a bit eccentric to write about an event that happened nearly one and a half year ago but few days back I was thinking about the long journey that I made and instantly decided to put my thoughts into writing. It took me couple of days to recollect the sequence of events and put them together that occured to land me in San Diego, California. I will say, somewhat this is connected to the earlier post that I wrote "Keep moving on!".
I was not among those fortunate students who usually have atleast one job offer before even finishing up their school. It took me a while to find this job after I finished up my graduate studies so I was really eager and excited to get this first job of mine. Within no time I had to wrap up my stuff and move from College Station, TX to San Diego. I got a used car just couple of days before from Houston, had night long parties, said good bye to my friends and started the 1,450 miles long journey. Although, I was pretty much excited about the job and moving to a beautiful city like San Diego but there was a slight pinch of uneasiness inside as I had to cover this journey all alone and moreover I was going to a complete new place where I knew no one. But life is such a beautiful experience that teaches one to cope up with different things each day in a different manner!
So I started from College Station in the morning and made a stop in one of the Hotels at Las Cruces to stay over night, reaching exactly half way. Las Cruces is the second largest city in New Mexico, right at the border of Texas and New Mexico.
It was a Saturday, 21st July of the year 2007, got up early, had my breakfast, spoke to my dad and started my journey again at around 9:30, still 700 miles to cover. I had burnt few CD's in College Station before I started and I remember very clearly that most of my journey I played 'The Division Bell' and 'Dark Side of the Moon' albums by Pink Floyd. Even now whenever I hear those songs the scenes of my journey start appearing before my eyes. Anyways, it was a clear bright day to start with (as it rained heavily the previous day for the most part) and started thinking about the new phase of life I was going to enter. I have had always heard from my seniors and elders that work life is so different than the study/school life so I was looking forward to learn how the new experience would be. When one is a student, everyone goes through several hardships fighting their way slowly-steadily and trying to construct a platform for themselves from where they hope to stand firm and start their careers. Everyone aspires to land up in a job where they can deliver their best and at the same time conquer their dreams. I had also thought of getting so many things once I have a job so thoughts of calculation started in my mind what I am gonna do in the next 6 months or so.
With all these thoughts in my end, I was also observing my surroundings of vast, empty barren land on both sides of the highway with no signs of human life for miles and miles. I constantly had a fear if my car breaks down of some reason in the middle of nowhere what would I do. After thinking for a while I got an answer that "I will be F..... and screwed up big time". By noon I had entered Arizona and I stopped for a breather in one of the rest areas, this rest area had a good amount of information about the state of Arizona, from wildlife to the economy of the state and moreover this rest area was quite crowded. After a 15 minute break I again continued and the next stop I made was at Tucson to satisfy my hunger levels. I had burgers at McDonalds and picked up coffee from Starbucks near by and again got back onto I-10. After only few miles from Tucson there's a place called 'Casa Grande' where I-10 splits into two Highways, one is the I-10 only that continues to Los Angeles and the second one is I-8 towards San Diego so I got onto I-8 and very soon realized that I-8 is even more deserted than I-10 with absolutely no signs of green on either side. At around 3, I stopped at a rare gas station on that highway to fuel up my car. I crossed through huge dry mountains on the way. These mountains had a very steep gradient for good amount of miles and the region is so hot that there a several warning signs to put off car A.C. as it would heat up the engine too much, I was not at all comfortable on seeing all this because I was not confident about my used car that I had bought just couple of days before but somehow my car didn't give up and I was in California now. Its only near El Cajon, next city to the east of San Diego, that I found some life, before that it was all desert.
Finally, at last I saw a city full of greenery and life as I entered El Cajon. It was now only that I saw some cars around me. I called up my friend at whose place I was going to put up initially until I don't find my own place. Within in no time I entered San Diego and was outside my friend's place (At around 6 in the evening). The moment I stepped out of my car I could feel the aroma in the air that was so different than what I had experienced so far living in Texas. The weather was a bit cooler and its quite interesting that how the mere type of climate around you changes one's mood. I called up my friends back in College Station and then at around 7:30 I called dad and told him about my safe arrival. I went for dinner after that, came back home and settled down. By the time I was a bit tired and no one was at home so I crashed and called it a day looking forward to my new step in life. Quite an eventful journey it was!!
I was not among those fortunate students who usually have atleast one job offer before even finishing up their school. It took me a while to find this job after I finished up my graduate studies so I was really eager and excited to get this first job of mine. Within no time I had to wrap up my stuff and move from College Station, TX to San Diego. I got a used car just couple of days before from Houston, had night long parties, said good bye to my friends and started the 1,450 miles long journey. Although, I was pretty much excited about the job and moving to a beautiful city like San Diego but there was a slight pinch of uneasiness inside as I had to cover this journey all alone and moreover I was going to a complete new place where I knew no one. But life is such a beautiful experience that teaches one to cope up with different things each day in a different manner!
So I started from College Station in the morning and made a stop in one of the Hotels at Las Cruces to stay over night, reaching exactly half way. Las Cruces is the second largest city in New Mexico, right at the border of Texas and New Mexico.
It was a Saturday, 21st July of the year 2007, got up early, had my breakfast, spoke to my dad and started my journey again at around 9:30, still 700 miles to cover. I had burnt few CD's in College Station before I started and I remember very clearly that most of my journey I played 'The Division Bell' and 'Dark Side of the Moon' albums by Pink Floyd. Even now whenever I hear those songs the scenes of my journey start appearing before my eyes. Anyways, it was a clear bright day to start with (as it rained heavily the previous day for the most part) and started thinking about the new phase of life I was going to enter. I have had always heard from my seniors and elders that work life is so different than the study/school life so I was looking forward to learn how the new experience would be. When one is a student, everyone goes through several hardships fighting their way slowly-steadily and trying to construct a platform for themselves from where they hope to stand firm and start their careers. Everyone aspires to land up in a job where they can deliver their best and at the same time conquer their dreams. I had also thought of getting so many things once I have a job so thoughts of calculation started in my mind what I am gonna do in the next 6 months or so.
With all these thoughts in my end, I was also observing my surroundings of vast, empty barren land on both sides of the highway with no signs of human life for miles and miles. I constantly had a fear if my car breaks down of some reason in the middle of nowhere what would I do. After thinking for a while I got an answer that "I will be F..... and screwed up big time". By noon I had entered Arizona and I stopped for a breather in one of the rest areas, this rest area had a good amount of information about the state of Arizona, from wildlife to the economy of the state and moreover this rest area was quite crowded. After a 15 minute break I again continued and the next stop I made was at Tucson to satisfy my hunger levels. I had burgers at McDonalds and picked up coffee from Starbucks near by and again got back onto I-10. After only few miles from Tucson there's a place called 'Casa Grande' where I-10 splits into two Highways, one is the I-10 only that continues to Los Angeles and the second one is I-8 towards San Diego so I got onto I-8 and very soon realized that I-8 is even more deserted than I-10 with absolutely no signs of green on either side. At around 3, I stopped at a rare gas station on that highway to fuel up my car. I crossed through huge dry mountains on the way. These mountains had a very steep gradient for good amount of miles and the region is so hot that there a several warning signs to put off car A.C. as it would heat up the engine too much, I was not at all comfortable on seeing all this because I was not confident about my used car that I had bought just couple of days before but somehow my car didn't give up and I was in California now. Its only near El Cajon, next city to the east of San Diego, that I found some life, before that it was all desert.
Finally, at last I saw a city full of greenery and life as I entered El Cajon. It was now only that I saw some cars around me. I called up my friend at whose place I was going to put up initially until I don't find my own place. Within in no time I entered San Diego and was outside my friend's place (At around 6 in the evening). The moment I stepped out of my car I could feel the aroma in the air that was so different than what I had experienced so far living in Texas. The weather was a bit cooler and its quite interesting that how the mere type of climate around you changes one's mood. I called up my friends back in College Station and then at around 7:30 I called dad and told him about my safe arrival. I went for dinner after that, came back home and settled down. By the time I was a bit tired and no one was at home so I crashed and called it a day looking forward to my new step in life. Quite an eventful journey it was!!
