Doomscrolling through the burnout of junior year and college application season, we suddenly found ourselves at the other end of it in January — the start of our second semester of senior year.
With just six months before we would leave Saratoga for college, we were struck with how much of our hometown we hadn’t explored — and the fact that it would be a shame to leave without doing so. This semester presented the perfect opportunity for “senior sidequesting.” And so we began to check off items from our bucket list.
Quest 1: De Anza College Flea Market
The De Anza Flea Market has been around long before we were born, but we only discovered it recently. It occurs on the first Saturday of every month from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. We went for the first time on March 7 and underestimated its size, so we only had time to check out a few stands (and purchased cute crochet key chains and sunglasses) before we had to leave. We returned on April 4, determined to visit the entire 800-stall market to uncover its magic.
The stalls were lined up in neat rows under canopy tents selling items including tools, clothes, plants, jewelry and more. We each spent less than $20 and happily left with second-hand books, beaded bracelets, a skirt, a shirt and a headband.
De Anza Flea Market is great for anyone interested in cheap accessories like rings, bracelets and keychains. There were also a surprising amount of gardening tools — at least one stand per row.
Quest 2: Seeing a San Jose Sharks game
In our 18 years, we had never once attended a professional sports event. We’re both dancers, and while dance IS a sport, it doesn’t have the same big stadium, chanting crowd or spirited feel as a traditional sports game. So on a whim, we bought tickets for the March 1 San Jose Sharks vs. Winnipeg Jets game ($45 each). We’ll admit it was partially inspired by our guilty obsession with a certain “hockey” show about a Heated Rivalry.
In a tense overtime game, Sharks’ center Michael Misa scored a goal, leading to a 2-1 win! We felt like little kids stepping into a brand-new world for the first time — every moment was something new and surprising. The “Hockey 101” videos we watched before the game didn’t nearly prepare us for the actual thing and we had to frantically Google every new term we heard (though we still don’t quite understand icing and offsides). On top of that, the periods were super fast-paced, constantly catching us off guard.
We were also introduced to Sharks arena traditions such as chanting and doing “shark chomp” hand motions whenever the jumbotron prompted. That constant sense of surprise and confusion was what made it so exciting.
Even the intermissions were fun. Emily was super impressed by the ice-resurfacing zamboni machines — they were shaped like big sharks! One teal and one dark gray, swimming through the sea of ice.
We walked out knowing one thing for sure: We’ll be back.
Quest 3: Self-defense
We also spent this time doing something practical. Saratoga is an extremely safe area with crime rates big cities can only dream of, but where we go for college, work and wherever else our lives take us will not be the same.
We found a training center right in Saratoga Downtown that teaches Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, a self-defense discipline that emphasizes energy-efficiency and leverage rather than brute strength, allowing you to defend yourself against people larger and stronger than you.
Taking classes once or twice a week, we learned how to de-escalate approaching threats, escape body locks and protect ourselves from hits to the face. We even learned how to choke someone until they passed out in order to give us time to escape — something that’s definitely a last resort. We partnered with each other to practice and fought so roughly that the instructor told us to “Be careful!” multiple times.
The community in the gym was super supportive and the instructors gladly answered our millions of questions. We hope we never have to use these techniques, but it’s comforting to know them.
Quest 4: Half Moon Bay
We’d been dreaming of a senior day-trip getaway for a long time, so when our schedules finally aligned at the start of spring break, a trip to Half Moon Bay finally made it out of the chat.
Despite Half Moon Bay’s reputation for ice-cold winds and heavy fog, we were blessed with a clear sky, light breeze and perfect temperatures in the low 70s. We first hiked the Cowell-Purisima Trail — a part of the California Coastal Trail — which was relatively flat and lined the coastline. Pretty early in the hike, we encountered an offshoot that led us down to a quiet beach with only a few other people. Underestimating the waves, we soon drenched our pants, but they quickly dried under the warm sun.
The rest of the trail presented frequent lookout points to different beaches and cliffsides. One thing that particularly surprised us was the abundance of animals and plants we encountered — the entire path was lined with wild mustard flowers and occasional groups of larger purple sea fig flowers, which grew on a succulent. There were also many different birds including a red-winger blackbird with vibrant, red, shoulder pad-looking spots; we even saw a great blue heron.
Before heading back, we stopped by the Cyprus Tree Tunnel at Seal Cove and rested under the shade of the arching branches. It was chillier in the shade, but the leaves dispersed patches of sunlight that were mesmerizing to look at.
Listening to Amy’s 2010’s playlist on the way back with songs like “Starving” by Hailee Steinfeld & Grey and “Fallin’ All in You” by Shawn Mendes, we found ourselves thinking back to elementary school. It felt like it was just yesterday when we were on a road trip with our families, bored and dozing in the backseat while our parents drove and planned everything. Now we’re in the front seat navigating the roads and making the plans.
We realized that maybe time was already passing by faster for us. Suddenly, high school is almost over, and the struggle over college applications that we thought would never end already feels so far in the past.
They say that as you age, time feels like it passes faster because your brain isn’t experiencing as many new things as when you were a child. Life becomes more routine.
Maybe that’s inevitable, but we’ll continue on to new sidequests and build memories in the finite time we have. Belting Shawn Mendes songs with the car windows down, training to be able to do a pullup at the gym and watching “The Rookie” together every week while fangirling over the cute couples — these have been some of our happiest moments of high school. No matter how busy we get in college and work, we’ll make it a priority to find small moments to try something new. We’ll decorate our lives, one sidequest after the next.
