Easter trip to D.C.

Over the past few weeks I visited college friends in San Francisco, went to a wedding in Los Angeles, and spent Easter with old work mates in Washington D.C. No real itinerary - just flights, floor space, and a loose plan to show up and see what happened.

I didn’t expect these trips to stay with me the way they did:

San Francisco really impressed me. Honestly, I’d been skeptical of the city, the hype, the whole discourse around it. But something about being there in person changed that. Everyone I met was building something — startups, side projects, bets they were placing on themselves. Everyone was hungry for something. I came back with a list of half-baked ideas and the motivation do something with them.

Los Angeles was seriously beautiful and the weather was perfect. My friends there are really focused on their wellness - regular hikes, workout classes, lots of time in the Sun. In New York, fitness feels like a competition - Strava posts, Instagram stories, a conversation topic at work. In LA, it felt integral to daily life.

D.C. was the one that stuck with me most. My previous trips were great, and this one was even better. One, it was cherry blossom season. Second, my first-ever hockey game, genuinely one of the more fun sports events I’d been to. Lastly (what actually stayed with me) was watching my close friends set up roots and build adult lives: run clubs, neighborhood events, community service, the whole thing. I was really impressed.

And the flights home were all the same: bone tired, deeply grateful, already dreading Monday.

I’m trying to figure out what I want the next few years to look like. Spending time with people who are living different versions of an answer to that question was genuinely useful, frightening, and inspiring. Not in a productivity-hack way, just in a human way.