I think I've lived this summer before. When I was 19, between my freshman and sophomore year at college I spent the summer in Berkeley, renting out someone's room and teaching swimming lessons. That's pretty much what I've got going this year. Plus the law job, of course.
But it's the summer I really wanted to have. I can't quite explain it, but I really wanted to come back here, even if it were just for a last hurrah. And being here for the past couple of days makes me feel very glad I did. I'm just really comfortable here. Berkeley was the first place that I ever made my home as an adult. I was 18 years old, and I moved thousands of miles away from the only home I'd ever known to start a life here. I stayed for six years, before new adventures called me away. Even though I lived in the Bay Area for three more years afterwards, it wasn't the same. I always felt like a stranger in Santa Clara. But in Berkeley I feel like I belong.
I'm renting a room in a house converted into apartments. My room is on the third floor, the bed in a dormer from which there is a nice view of the Berkeley hills. It makes a good nest. So far the roommates seem reasonable, although there will be a new one later this week I haven't yet met.
I've also got all sorts of plans to get healthy this summer: eating better, and getting lots and lots of exercise. I'll have a ton to do this summer, with two jobs and some summer law school stuff to take care of, but I should be able to follow through on a lot of it. I already feel much more invigorated just being here in the sunny Bay Area. At last it feels like summer.
The law job has also started already; today was the first day of orientation training. We were given crash courses covering public benefits law, which is surprisingly difficult to master (the hypos we worked on required identifying the different funding sources available, and the various Byzantine income requirements each of them had), and domestic violence issues, which are very sobering. The terror some people have to feel in their homes is just terrible. I wasn't unfamiliar with the problem of domestic violence generally, before this, but it used to feel like the people involved were "other people," and no one I could ever possibly know. But that's just an illusion; it's more common than people think. And this summer I may be helping some of them.