I was always a good kid. Always did my homework, my chores, and god forbid I ever disobeyed my parents. My best friend Tali on the other hand, was a wild child growing up. I always envied her rebellious character but was way too frightened to be a badass rule-breaker.
It was 1967 - I had just turned 20 years old and I was finishing up my third year at UC Berkeley. Tali came with me to UC Berkeley, and little did we know going to this school would change our lives forever. It is difficult to realize that you are part of such an important time in history until years later when you can look back and realize the true significance of it. The Vietnam War has already been going on for a little over 10 years and the American dream as we knew it just kept seeming more and more like a lie. My male friends were constantly being drafted to the war and all we could think about were the horrifying PTSD stories, and how unnecessary this entire war was.
About 3 years ago, Mario Savio, a grad student created the free speech movement, a movement that changed my perspective for the rest of my life. It was crazy. I couldn’t believe I was protesting against the government, but it felt amazing and exciting. Tali and I took pride in taking part in this movement, especially when we were engulfed in a crowd of 3000 students, completely surrounding a police car and preventing it from budging for 36 hours. That was when I realized how corrupt this country was, and that we were living such a cookie-cutter life.
When the school year finally ended, Tali and I went back home to LA, but there was something about our lives that was missing. There was word of a mass influx of people going to San Francisco, and somehow Tali convinced me to make the road trip there with her. We heard rumors that free spirit and love overwhelmingly roamed the streets, but little did we know it was among over 75,000 people our own age. Groups of free-spirited hippies were gathered amongst each other wearing flowers sewn into their hair and wrapped around their bodies, serenading each other with soul music. Motorcycles soared through the streets, blasting rock n’ roll. It was chaotic madness, but it was also the most beautiful form of life I’ve ever witnessed.
Tali and I spent that summer crashing in an apartment of a group of friends who we met at the Grateful Dead concert early that summer. They were wild, high on life, and drugs. After the concert, we went back to their loft right off of the main streets of San Francisco, and they took me on a trip that I never thought I would go on. My whole life, “drugs are bad” was shoved down my ears without any explanation of their effects. Tali, of course, was over eager to try this mind-altering substance while I was a little nervous but was ultimately caught up in this cultural revolution. LSD, lysergic acid diethylamide, was the most popular drug roaming through the streets of the Summer of Love. People were convinced it opened up new pathways of thinking and allowed them to explore fascinating spiritual connections. It was also popularly encouraged to be taken in a safe environment with people who you can trust, so at that point, I decided to try it. I began to see things a lot more saturated than usual and everything around me started to become wavy. I became somewhat but pleasantly dissociated with my body and feeling in my limbs and the space in front of me started to warp. My ideas were going in crazy directions and I felt the vibrations of the music that was playing from the radio. I really met Lucy in the Sky.
The Summer of Love changed my life forever. It taught me to be my own person and stand up for what I’m passionate about regardless of social norms. I truly felt what it felt like to be free from authority’s grip, and experienced pure happiness and love, from both the people I became close to and from strangers. Most importantly, it taught me to love myself and the beautiful parts of life, something I will teach my own children someday.