There's nothing better than a night out with the girls. Especially if the girls are ones who you haven't had a night out with in about as long as you can remember. It's an interesting and unique thing as a local living in my hometown that I haven't been in the same room with my closest high school friends since a little bit after graduation. But neither this blog nor this post is about what I haven't done in the past four years or so, it's about what I'm doing this summer. Summer 2011.
The idea of this blog began as less than a nugget when I first started going to school at Flagler College in my hometown of St. Augustine, FL. Like every proper born and bred St. Augustinian, I had been harboring a gnawing dislike for the sleepy drinking village in which I was convinced I would become trapped. Nothing means much at the age of 17 other than leaving the only place you've known for the past seventeen (obviously very well versed and worldly...) years of your life. Contrary to this feeling, however, I chose to stay in town for college, despite the fact that I kept willing Flagler, the only school to which I applied, to up and move to another place. I stayed in St. Augustine at that point as an 18 year old and soon became a resident of what is known as Downtown St. Augustine, living in the female dorms at Ponce Hall.
That's when my perspective on my life as a St. Augustinian shifted irreversibly. Suddenly, I was not a local shmuck still haunting the streets of my childhood. Now I was a Flagler student, wearing new paths in this place which was, inexplicably, new to me. At the time, I attributed this fresh sight to the fact that I was seeing St. Augustine through the eyes of friends who had never been to this richly historical and beautiful place I called home. Over my past four years at Flagler, however, I have come to realize that I was not seeing St. Augustine with new eyes. I was in fact seeing St. Augustine with eyes that were slowly, ever so slowly, falling in love. This love became clear to me in and around my junior year at Flagler, when I finally turned 21. Not only was I able to experience the more family friendly delights which St. Augustine had to offer, but now little is barred to me. I relish in St. Augustine's marvelously abysmal nightlife (it's there, I promise. You only need to know where to look) and even the more "grown-up" tourist traps (a term which will henceforth be banned from this blog) such as the San Sebastian Winery wine tasting tours.
This blog is simply one of the many fruits which has been born of this love. When my sister and I took a road trip to Savannah, Tybee Island, and Hilton Head, there were countless people (seriously. bunches.) who kept saying things to us like, "Wow, you're from St. Augustine? Well, this place is just like St. Augustine except --insert some inane and unimportant difference here--." That's when I knew. That's when I knew that I was living in my own vacation and had yet to recognize it.
What is the point of this blog? I suppose it forces me to explore the parts and sections of St. Augustine that not even I have ventured into yet. But it is also here for the purpose of disproving other 17 year olds who were born and bred here with their natural disdain. Trust me when I say, this place is cool. This place is fun. This place is vibrant and active. This is my hometown and I love it.
And if you love it enough, I promise St. Augustine will love you right back.
About that girls night out? We'll get back to that. That story got away from me a bit, but it will be re-explored. For now, I'm off to make more stories. Please stick around so that I can share them with you.
