San Francisco is a destination for most people who move here. Whether it was for a job, to be closer to family, for school, or for a change of scenery–we were excited to move to the Bay Area. I have been wondering what context in the Exodus narrative San Francisco is most like.

When I first moved here, I had graduated from art school and was escaping the heat of the Midwest for more temperate weather. I was close to my family again. San Francisco was my Promised Land.

However, after I arrived I struggled to find a job and ended up working as a barista making minimum wage and tips, living on my sister's couch a few more months then I had anticipated. The dot-com bubble had not yet fully burst. I had two expensive emergency room bills that I had acquired before I had insurance. The impending debt from college loans loomed over my head. My ATM card was stolen and my accounts were frozen right when I was about to sign the lease on a decent apartment. I lost the apartment. The next best thing I could find was a laundry room in the back of a garage for $600 a month. I felt like the Israelites crying out in the desert. San Francisco became my Egypt.

I began working six days a week making what was technically below the poverty line. Every time I thought I was going to have to call my parents and ask if I could move back home I would sell a painting. I was just barely making enough to pay my bills and live. San Francisco became my Wilderness.

At one point I complained to one of my coworkers at the coffee shop, "I don't get it, I am working hard, and trying to do things right and this is my reward?" He replied, "You do not work hard and do what is right to get something. You do what is right because that is the right thing to do." It was then that I realized I had always worked hard expecting that I would get paid sufficiently for my hard work. I had always done the right thing expecting a reward for my good deeds. My worldview and identity were shaken. San Francisco became my Sinai.

The more I reflect on my eleven years living here the more I realize that San Francisco is all four: Egypt, Sinai, The Wilderness, and the Promised Land. I have seen many people come to the city and leave the city. Currently, I am meeting in a group with other families. We fear that San Francisco will be Egypt for our families. We look to the Church to be Sinai. We do not want the city to be our Wilderness. Our hope is that it will be the Promised land.