Ode to a Blue House

On September 1st, 2018, I and my overloaded Subaru completed an arduous 3-day drive across the country as we crested a hill and came to a stop in front of this blue house. Moments after getting out of my car and taking in the fact that I was now officially a resident of Los Angeles, I was standing in a small empty bedroom on the second floor of this house, which ended up being my home for the next four and a half years.

Yesterday, on January 1st, 2023, it finally hit me that I was really leaving when I took my last possession out of that room and was left with that same empty room from 4.5 years prior staring back at me.

I had expected to feel a lot of things when it hit me: excitement for my new place and the journey ahead, relief that I was finally done moving things out of there, and maybe a bit of nostalgia for the time I spent in that room. Instead, I was greeted with a sharp pang of sadness.

I grew up in a military family, so we moved around. When we finally settled in the DC area, it was the first place I grew to know as “home”. But we also moved houses within the area years after we initially got there, so the longest I ever spent in one house before going off to college was about 3 years. In college I bounced around dorm rooms and off-campus apartments every year, and left for the West Coast having lived in 7 different spots in 7 years. What this means is that the 4.5 years I spent living in the Blue House on the Hill is by far the longest I have ever lived in one residence. This turned out to not be as easy to say goodbye to as I originally thought.

There are many practical reasons why I moved and why I’d been looking for a new place for a long time. But in the moment I saw the empty room, I forgot all of them and had to fight back tears as all of the memories came flooding back. How I started my Los Angeles journey in that room, calling my parents to tell them I made it safely and then walking to Guisados to get my first LA meal. All the nights in the house laughing or crying the night away with friends and housemates. Playing happy birthday on the roof as the party looked on from below:

…and many more, lots of which were preserved in the Polaroids we took in the moment.

In many ways, living in the house felt like living with a family - a family that at one time would go exploring on Bird scooters every Monday and cook a feast together every Wednesday. And though I am beyond excited for my new place and what lies ahead, I will always cherish the good times at the blue house and recognize its significance in the history of my life. After all, I started my LA career there, lived through a global pandemic there, and started living as my true self there. It’s impossible to overstate how important the Blue House chapter of my life was.

It’s going to be really hard not answering “Echo Park!” when somebody asks where I live. Because I lived there for so long compared to everywhere else in my life, it almost feels like I just left home for the first time. It’s going to take time to fully process and get used to, and I think a part of me will always feel like I belong there until I live somewhere else even longer. Echo Park almost feels like part of who I am. My time there was far from perfect and in truth I am glad to be out, but it was hugely important all the same.

So long, Echo Park. Thanks for everything.

…except the Dodger traffic. 🙄