Home is where the vision sees it

The woman in this photo - I would love to be her. I don't know who she is, or what she is like. I just know she is walking the streets in Montmartre, a bohemian neighborhood in Paris, and probably is living there too.

I was born in a city (Metro Manila), and raised in the countryside (Province of Nueva Vizcaya, Northern Philippines). Having grown up in a small town, I took every chance to steep myself in the city milieu of Manila. When I finished high school - off I was a month after graduation! I did not look back fondly, at least not for a while. Fast forward to the present, and I can say I have lived in seven cities to be exact. Most of them are here in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is kind of funny how now I long for the quiet of a small town. Most recently I started to doubt whether urban life is a proper fit for me.

Though I have mostly worked in San Francisco, I have not actually lived there. Would I move there in a heartbeat? The answer was unequivocally YES a few years ago. But if you asked me now, I'd say "only in a neighborhood I love." Surprisingly to me, of all the places I've called my stomping grounds, I let the City of Oakland embrace me the most. I can't say that city loved me tenderly, as rough as many parts of it looked, but it loved me warmly, and generously. That is where I would move in a heartbeat (and yes, to select neighborhoods only).

​Where I live now is in San Leandro, in a neighborhood called Washington Manor. The Manor. Someone who knows me deeply could describe how every recess within me cringed and cried against trying to live here. I had an argument with my husband over moving here (more on this story later). This neighborhood is not who I am: bland. un-inspiring. Worst of all, it has a very pretentious name. The Manor. An appellation worthy of lordships and nobility. Not a post-war American neighborhood with no-style homes.

You know when you cannot change your circumstances, but you can change your mindset? Well I have been working on the mindset. 

I am an active dialogue participant in the Nextdoor app specific to where I live now. There was once a girls' dance studio (The Dina Star Dancers) around the corner from me, in a mini strip mall. It folded, and the space had a For Lease sign for a few months. I inquired with the leasing agent, but by then it was too late.

My thought was for them to allow pop-up uses of the space. Having a yoga studio that's accessible is one of the things I miss from living in cities like Oakland, and Alameda. It is something sorely lacking in our neighborhood, and I think San Leandro as a whole. Sure, there are 24-Hour Fitness gyms around, but the yoga classes there just do not appeal to me. And how nice would it be to walk somewhere for a workout class!

If the property manager would have allowed it, I thought possible uses of the space would also be photography studios, or maybe other pop-up shops.

I'm looking into alternatives now, such as the public middle school just a stone's throw away from me. I will keep everyone posted.

Now that's a first step to being the change you want to happen in the world. :)