I Know I Talk About This Place a Lot

And I’ve realized it’s probably because I’m here a lot.

Not just physically.. but emotionally, mentally, creatively.

Catalina Island has become a constant in my life. A pause button. A mirror. A place I return to when I need to remember who I am underneath everything else.

This trip wasn’t planned. It wasn’t a vacation.

It was a goodbye.

The boat (Bojangles) we used to stay on out here was where memories were made, where life slowed down, where conversations lasted longer than the days.. was sinking. She didn’t survive the last storm. And before it disappeared completely, we felt called to go back. To take a piece of it. To honor it. To say thank you.

Some people might not understand that.

But some places aren’t just places.

They’re chapters.

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Why Catalina Means So Much to Me

What makes this island special isn’t just the water or the quiet or the way time stretches differently here. It’s the people. The familiarity. The sense of being known without needing to explain yourself.

It’s the feeling of belonging without effort.

Catalina has been a place of rest and reflection, but also of shared meals, laughter, stillness, and growth. It’s where memories layered themselves gently over time until suddenly, they mattered more than I realized.

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Saying Goodbye Without Erasing the Past

There’s a tenderness in returning somewhere you love knowing it won’t be the same again. There’s sadness, yes but also gratitude.

Because not everyone gets to love something deeply enough to miss it.

This trip wasn’t about reliving the past.

It was about honoring it.

Impermanence doesn’t make something less meaningful. It makes it sacred.

And sometimes, saying goodbye is just another way of saying thank you.