Back To School: A Return To My Alma Mater After 28 Years

They say you can’t go home…or something like that…I don’t even know who “they” are…the point is it’s hard to return to something or somewhere after multiple decades and expect to see and feel the same things. Such was the case on my recent re-visit to Long Beach, California, where I spent three years of my life prior to moving to NorCal back in the Summer of 1992. I earned my graduate degree at Cal State University Long Beach during that time, and I hadn’t been back since my graduation ceremony in 1993 (right after my daughter Nicole was born). The first thing I noticed was I didn’t recognize ANYTHING…”the campus couldn’t have changed THAT much,” I thought to myself, but I couldn’t find my way around AT ALL. That fact didn’t stop me from posing next to a giant “GO BEACH” sign I don’t remember (ignore the fact that I look like a gray-haired potato thanks to the website-required pixel count). I was relieved to find that one thing hadn’t changed: my favorite watering hole in Long Beach was not only still open, but serving the very first craft beer I ever enjoyed: Long Beach Crude. Shout Out to the awesome staff at Belmont Brewing Company! As Jon Bon Jovi and Jennifer Nettles say, “Who Says You Can’t Go Home?”  #belmontbrewingcompany #longbeachcrudebeer

John Young