Dear San Francisco, 

This August we would have been together 25 years. Can you believe that? That's more than half my life. I mean, not to make this all about me; I know you're nearly 240 years old, I think we both can agree that from your perspective 25 years is but spittle in the Bay. So bear with me and my narrower temporal view. 

My first memories of you are from childhood. With my parents at the old Exploratorium by the Palace of Fine Arts, jumping again and again in the shadow box, to see my shadow captured in midair. Staring at the patterned tiled sidewalks of the Embarcadero, dizzy as I walked above them holding my dad's hand. Walking around the Financial District watching all the business ladies tap swiftly down the sidewalks in their high-heels and their skirt suits. Dad would buy me a pretzel from one of the carts and we'd go hang out at the fountain in Justin Herman Plaza. For as long as I can remember, my greatest ambition was to live in San Francisco. 

And here we are, nearly 25 years later, that ambition wholly realized. I have watched your sunrises from the rooftop of a local politician, through the windows of early-opening bars and the homes of friends, from the edge of Stow Lake, from the heights of Twin Peaks. I have watched your fog boil down the streets and rush around Sutro tower. I have ridden your cable cars smugly among the tourists and cursed and glorified your hills. I swam at Ocean Beach at 3am on a full-moon night. I have biked across the Golden Gate and eaten burritos until I thought my belly would split. I have acquired a taste for Fernet Branca. 

 So many plans and ambitions hatched and achieved here, inspired and enabled by your vibrancy and color, and by the incomparable people I've met inside your bars and cafes and classrooms and offices. That's what I am most grateful to you for: your people—my people. I am certain other cities also harbor such excellent humans (in truth I am counting heartily on that), but the San Francisco humans I have met have informed my existence with love and laughter and loyalty, they have delighted and surprised and inspired me. You, San Francisco, have provided me with the finest friends of my life, a second family whom I love with all my heart. 

My life has happened here. I am who I am because of you, San Francisco. Whatever happens next started with you, and for that, I am and will always be grateful. 

But we both know a change is in order. Right now, most crucially. I have to go away so that I can miss you. New perspectives are important—I know you agree. You may have wondered why I've stuck around as long as I have. To be honest, I wonder that too. But then I remember how well I've loved you, and I know why. 

I love you. I'll see you later.