Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Painfully Normal: Suburbia, East Chula Vista and Family Values

The year was 1994. I was 13. The time was 7pm, I was suppose to be doing my Algebra homework, but I had a secret obsession with watching a news magazine show called Hard Copy. The segment I began to watch was called “High School Nympho Club.” Naturally, being a young-adolescent going through puberty, I was instantly intrigued. In the midst of being hypnotized by the provocative images on the screen, I heard the words “Eastlake High.” I wasn’t sure whether to be excited, worried, scared, or euphoric, but I if I remember correctly I think I felt all of those emotions simultaneously.

Eastlake High opened in 1992, and it did not have a feeder school (Eastlake Middle) yet, so the district (Sweetwater) had open enrollment to nearby middle schools and junior highs. In 94, I was an eighth grader at Hilltop middle bound for Nympho-Club High. Much to my naïve disappointment by the time I arrived at Eastlake High most of the nympho-club pioneers had either been expelled or graduated.

Thus my high school experience was nowhere near as exciting as I initially anticipated. East Chula Vista looked a bit different back then. Otay Ranch, was really a ranch. Olympic parkway (street) did not exist. The only strip mall we had (95-96), was the one on Otay Lakes Road with the Vons, McDonald’s and Computer Renaissance. Today, East Chula Vista is a poster child for suburban sprawl, the corporate invasion includes: Target, Wendy’s. Subway, Albertson’s, Macy’s, Chilli’s, PF changs, Kohls. Basically, every lame, redundant, unoriginal corporate store imaginable exists in East Chula Vista today, with the exception of my two favorite stores: Trader Joe’s and Borders.

Throughout High School and college I was internally haunted and conflicted with an inferiority complex to every hip/popular San Diego community (Mission Beach, La Jolla, North Park, Kensington, Mission Valley, Gaslamp). I analyzed my community with so much self-hate because it was so painfully normal. All the homes are some shade of beige/crème. The architecture is homogeneous. The lake in Eastlake is artificial. There are no dolphins at dolphin beach. Eastlake greens, is really not that green, and there is no forest in the Eastlake woods.

So we don’t have cool zip code t-shirts like Mission Bay that say 92109, nor the hipsterish skinny jeans allure of North Park, nor the yuppie post ball-game nightlife of downtown, nor the elitist tradition of La Jolla, nor are we a singles Mecca like PB, but East Chula Vista is an ideal place for America’s most sacred institution: the family.

Today my father had a colonoscopy. For the first time in my life, I realized that my father was mortal, that he was not superman. As I waited in the reception room, I got teary eyed because for the first-time in my life I was afraid of tomorrow. Growing up my father would routinely greet me as “campeon” or champ. My motivation academically and athletically was always to seek to his approval, to get his famous “champ” greeting. I never suspected that this would have such a profound emotional effect on me. As I sat there waiting I received various phone calls from work colleagues. The calls were work-related but they quickly shifted to my fathers’ colonoscopy because my friends could tell I was an emotional wreck. Three hours later, the doctor gave us a positive prognosis that the tests indicated that my father was cancer-free. When I arrived home I had 22 unread emails in my inbox. Two of the emails were from work-colleagues and the rest were from my students at Eastlake High. Somehow, they all knew that my father was getting some sort of testing done. All the emails expressed genuine concern and hope.

Today I realized why I chose to comeback to teach, live, and coach in the community I grew up in, because underneath the homogeneous architecture, the variations of beige, the lame stores, and the painful normality of East Chula Vista we have created an adolescent culture that is compassionate about humanity not nympho clubs.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

The ups and downs of Cel Cerro on a bike

Best outdoors times
Next Article

When Rafael Payare met with Irwin Jacobs

The new Music Center is a heavenly hall

The year was 1994. I was 13. The time was 7pm, I was suppose to be doing my Algebra homework, but I had a secret obsession with watching a news magazine show called Hard Copy. The segment I began to watch was called “High School Nympho Club.” Naturally, being a young-adolescent going through puberty, I was instantly intrigued. In the midst of being hypnotized by the provocative images on the screen, I heard the words “Eastlake High.” I wasn’t sure whether to be excited, worried, scared, or euphoric, but I if I remember correctly I think I felt all of those emotions simultaneously.

Eastlake High opened in 1992, and it did not have a feeder school (Eastlake Middle) yet, so the district (Sweetwater) had open enrollment to nearby middle schools and junior highs. In 94, I was an eighth grader at Hilltop middle bound for Nympho-Club High. Much to my naïve disappointment by the time I arrived at Eastlake High most of the nympho-club pioneers had either been expelled or graduated.

Thus my high school experience was nowhere near as exciting as I initially anticipated. East Chula Vista looked a bit different back then. Otay Ranch, was really a ranch. Olympic parkway (street) did not exist. The only strip mall we had (95-96), was the one on Otay Lakes Road with the Vons, McDonald’s and Computer Renaissance. Today, East Chula Vista is a poster child for suburban sprawl, the corporate invasion includes: Target, Wendy’s. Subway, Albertson’s, Macy’s, Chilli’s, PF changs, Kohls. Basically, every lame, redundant, unoriginal corporate store imaginable exists in East Chula Vista today, with the exception of my two favorite stores: Trader Joe’s and Borders.

Throughout High School and college I was internally haunted and conflicted with an inferiority complex to every hip/popular San Diego community (Mission Beach, La Jolla, North Park, Kensington, Mission Valley, Gaslamp). I analyzed my community with so much self-hate because it was so painfully normal. All the homes are some shade of beige/crème. The architecture is homogeneous. The lake in Eastlake is artificial. There are no dolphins at dolphin beach. Eastlake greens, is really not that green, and there is no forest in the Eastlake woods.

So we don’t have cool zip code t-shirts like Mission Bay that say 92109, nor the hipsterish skinny jeans allure of North Park, nor the yuppie post ball-game nightlife of downtown, nor the elitist tradition of La Jolla, nor are we a singles Mecca like PB, but East Chula Vista is an ideal place for America’s most sacred institution: the family.

Today my father had a colonoscopy. For the first time in my life, I realized that my father was mortal, that he was not superman. As I waited in the reception room, I got teary eyed because for the first-time in my life I was afraid of tomorrow. Growing up my father would routinely greet me as “campeon” or champ. My motivation academically and athletically was always to seek to his approval, to get his famous “champ” greeting. I never suspected that this would have such a profound emotional effect on me. As I sat there waiting I received various phone calls from work colleagues. The calls were work-related but they quickly shifted to my fathers’ colonoscopy because my friends could tell I was an emotional wreck. Three hours later, the doctor gave us a positive prognosis that the tests indicated that my father was cancer-free. When I arrived home I had 22 unread emails in my inbox. Two of the emails were from work-colleagues and the rest were from my students at Eastlake High. Somehow, they all knew that my father was getting some sort of testing done. All the emails expressed genuine concern and hope.

Today I realized why I chose to comeback to teach, live, and coach in the community I grew up in, because underneath the homogeneous architecture, the variations of beige, the lame stores, and the painful normality of East Chula Vista we have created an adolescent culture that is compassionate about humanity not nympho clubs.

Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

After car crash, Sweetwater trustee McCann out of ICU

Other victim soon back to work
Next Article

Game of the Week: Chula Vista at Eastlake

Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader