Not a Gossip Girl

Whenever I mention the fact that I live in San Francisco, peoples’ eyes immediately light up and a smile spreads across their face. Yes, I do live in a super cool industrial loft five minutes away from AT&T Park, but that doesn’t mean my life is a never-ending cycle of crazy parties and fun concerts, great restaurants and high-end shopping; it’s actually almost the same as living in Walnut Creek.

Living in San Francisco, people assume I live either right in the heart of the city or along the beach, but I don’t. My apartment is located around the corner from a homeless shelter, which means every morning I drive by a long line of people with matted hair and soiled clothes and return home to panhandlers. Even though I am only a short walk away from shops and museums and restaurants, I am not constantly dining at gourmet restaurants or going on shopping sprees.

Since I am only a junior in high school, my school week consists of school, work, sports and homework, which leaves little time for clubbing or dining. On the weekends I sometimes walk to Union Square or go to Pier 31 to visit the seals, but a lot of times I am at a sports tournament or doing homework or even spending time with friends in Walnut Creek. On top of everything, I am only sixteen years old and I still live with my parents. In short, that means I am too young to go to crazy restaurants or clubs and am often under the watchful eye of my mother, who is naturally worried about her daughter running around the city.

I’ll be honest and say that it is much more exciting to be living 15 minutes from Union Square than 20 minutes from downtown Walnut Creek, but the area I live in is grimy and is riddled with homeless people. I split my time almost evenly between San Francisco and Walnut Creek- with my mom and her boyfriend in our loft in the city and my dad and myself in a Walnut Creek apartment.  I am not solely a city child, nor do I claim to be, but I have enough experience to say that life in San Francisco can be much worse than living in Walnut Creek, or even the Bay Area.

So, yes, I do live in San Francisco–and yes, my family and I do have regular restaurants we visit with amazing food, and we do go to quirky stores nobody has heard of–but overall city life as a sixteen year old in high school isn’t as amazing as it may sound, especially if it’s only in San Francisco, because in all honesty, true city kids come from places like Manhattan, not South of Market.