Tribal Flower Sunset Tank Top

I'd always liked sunsets. Never took them for granted, exactly. But I don't think I'd actually seen one until I moved to Pacific Beach in San Diego. We were renting a cottage a five minute walk from the sand, and every night I'd notice the same thing: the locals showing up, one by one, to watch it go down together.

Most nights it was quiet, just people finding a spot on the sand and going still. But Friday nights were a whole different animal, someone would set up a DJ right above the beach, and the sunset turned into a full-on celebration. Picnics, drinks, half the neighborhood out there while the sky put on its show. 

I figured it was a pandemic habit that just never left. Then I saw the same pull happen in Baja, and again in Costa Rica, and I stopped thinking it was a San Diego thing. It's a west coast thing. Something about the ocean and the sun setting into it that gets everyone outside at the same time, no flyer, no group chat, just instinct.

It could be a quiet night or Friday night celebration, everyone's mesmerized by the same colors, and glow. As the sun gets close to the horizon, the talking drops to whispers, then nothing at all. Total strangers, shoulder to shoulder in silence, watching the same few minutes of sky.

I've never felt closer to people I've never met.