Seattle (An Essay)

My infatuation with Seattle began at an early age. I am a child of the 90s, and in the 90s Seattle was experiencing a cultural moment. Music, movies, clothes, technology, and the boundless beauty of the Pacific Northwest filled our screens and lured an endless sea of people westward. As a kid planted in front of a television, a seed was planted. Over the next twenty years, this seed would slowly grow, germinate, and spread. This infatuation would soon become an all-consuming thought. At an inflection point in my life, it would become impossible to ignore.

Seattle was an escape and some place to begin again. In the fall of 2010, I decided to write a new story among the mountains, trees, and vistas of Seattle. Before arriving, my expectations were lofty. This place needed to serve as a baptismal. On the other end of this experience, I expected to find cleansing and redeeming waters. I longed to be born anew.

In Oklahoma, on my last official day at work, a warning shot was fired across my bow. “I have a friend who just moved back to Oklahoma from Seattle. She had a really hard time making friends there.” Excited by the season of change and in possession of a rare ability to make friends anywhere, I shrugged off her tale of defeat. That will not be my story, I decided.

From a one-bedroom apartment in Kent, my Pacific Northwest story started writing itself in the…