Editor's note

By Sean Rosner

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Maybe it was just typical teenage angst and boredom, but during my high school years I absolutely hated living in Kansas. There was never anything fun to do, and I had difficulty finding people with whom I had much in common. So when I started getting into old surf movies my junior year, it was easy for me to naively dream of picking up and moving to the beach. I’d sit at home and watch movies such as Endless Summer or Ride the Wild Surf and think about leaving the plains behind for the coast of California.

 It wasn’t just the climate and beautiful, sun-soaked landscapes that attracted me; I fell in love with the beach-bum lifestyle and the freedom it represented. Why would I want to waste my time in the Midwest when I could just move to the west coast, live in an old beachside cottage and spend my days in the sand?

 Then my senior year I got the chance to go to southern California over spring break with a school club. I couldn’t wait to get out in the sunshine, explore the beaches and see the lifestyle that I wanted for my own. But when my plane touched down at John Wayne Orange County Airport, that’s far from what I found.

 We spent most of the trip waiting in traffic as we traveled between Anaheim, San Diego and Los Angeles. Then on the last day we visited Huntington Beach. Finally I would get to see what California was really all about. But when I hopped off the bus I found what was essentially a shopping mall on the ocean, complete with every chain store I could think of. Where were all the bonfires and parties on the beach? All I could see were photo-snapping tourists.

 Even though the trip burst my bubble about what California is really like, I don’t regret my days spent dreaming of the beach. I still try to harbor the easygoing and adventurous attitude of the surfers in the movies, even though I know the world they lived in wasn’t real.

 Check out Mia’s story on page 15 about her experience seeing the real people and places behind something she loved. You’ll see that even though we sometimes disillusion ourselves about things we’ve never seen, doing so isn’t necessarily a waste of time.

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