My favorite city in Europe is Paris.
You might say that it’s a cliche or there are better cities than Paris in Europe, and you are probably right. The way I classify favorite is to ask the questions – Did I have fun? Did it satisfy my curiosity to explore? And the primary reason Paris checks those boxes is that it was my first time in a European city. Everything was new – in some ways, Paris set the baseline for the rest of the cities I traveled to. My next trip was to Amsterdam and whether I wanted to or not I was comparing the people, food, high street to the ones in Paris. Remaining cities all blurred together, there is a castle, cathedral, high street or downtown, and gardens but Paris stands out. Do not get me wrong, there are memories of all the cities I went to, but Paris is unique – whether I like that or not.

Moving to a new Place.
My move to Phoenix was a milestone in growing up.
I have moved places almost every 5-7 years since I was born – that’s a lot of places, but Phoenix was the first place where I moved to on my own. I had figure out – finding a home, internet, grocery shopping, my taxes, driving, cooking food, social life – man! That was hard, but it stands out. And then I moved to London – it was also another significant move, but in my head I was ready, and I had a baseline – everything in London was a delta to what I did in Phoenix or classified as being new to London. The newness of moving wasn’t there because I had done it before.

My first series of books – Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven.
Secret Seven was the first series I read. I had other stand-alone books, but this was my first ever series. And I loved it, and I remember desperately searching for the next book in the series. I read lots of series afterward like famous five, secret series, nancy drew, and some of them from the same author but the charm and discovery in the first series is truly unique. I was thrilled to know that they had passwords for their meetings – in some ways it was my first exploration of the city of secret series like Paris.

At work, I have a penchant for telling what I call ‘My Nephew Jokes’ like
Why was the computer late to work? – because it had a hard drive.
Some people laugh at them, and some don’t. Some people are laughing inside which I have come to understand is another way of saying – I don’t find that funny. And some people laugh because they like my enjoyment of the jokes.

It is possible that a few of you might not agree with my “First” theory, but you have your model of what remains with you – what evokes the spirit of discovery and excitement in you – and brings up the childlike wonder and curiosity in you. And I aim to keep that alive and never let it get jaded.

Live every day like a new day.