Essay 3

This is an image of Lombard Street in San Francisco. It was taken during the past summer right before descending down its scary path.  

When an average person sees this photo, it is simply a photo of a street that flows downhill. To those who know of the street, it is a photo of a city landmark. To me when I look at this photo, it represents a vacation and a week and summer of bliss and good times. Seeing this photo brings back memories and the feeling of the completely void-of-humidity California air that I had the pleasure of experiencing this summer. Seeing this I can practically feel my hair keeping its hold, whatever that may be, and I can almost taste the vodka lemonades that we loved a little too much while visiting Vacaville, Sacramento, and San Francisco.

When several people hear of Lombard Street or see photos, denotatively they know that it is located in San Francisco and it is one of the steepest and most complicated streets in the nation to navigate down. Several people make the connection of when they’ve seen it in movies or television shows such as Mythbusters. However, when I went down it, the only instant connection that I made was how much I would enjoy running up and down it. I really enjoy running when I’m not hurt, and I regret that I never had the chance to run up Lombard. To me it would be the perfect training and I hope that one day I am living in a location where I have something similar to Lombard Street at my disposal.

To several people, this photo is just a tourist photo. It holds no significant value to them. It is simply a digital photograph that can be manipulated and printed in mass quantities. To me though, it holds memories and goals that I hope to accomplish soon. When I see this image, I see a street worth conquering, a beautiful skyline, the sea, colors that I know are very bright and gorgeous in real life, and I feel the presence of the friends that were in the car with me during the decent. I can still hear the squeals of laughter and ridiculousness as we slowly rambled down the hill, always feeling like the car would begin to roll at any moment.

This photo means more to me than many people could ever guess. It signifies good times and exercise and I could look at it all day long to keep the memories of the summer fresh in mind.