Caro and Vishesh

The kite festival made me look up at the sky for longer than I have since I was a kid looking out the window in the backseat. It felt really whimsical. People of all ages were there to enjoy putting a toy in the sky. When my kite got tangled with others’ it was always a really fun exchange. We’d laugh and separate the kites, there was so much joy. It was the most LA has felt for me in a long time.

Parks make me feel connected to LA because it’s a place I can go to get out of my apartment and have fun for free. I love going to different parks cause it’s a great way to see different neighborhoods. Watching people at the parks makes me feel like I live here too. Parks are a hub for the community.

When we went to this festival, I’d just moved back to LA after being gone for 4 months. My friend and new roommate Vishesh, who is kneeling in the photo, invited me. I decided to go because though I’ve lived in LA since 2018, I’ve felt really disconnected from this place and I miss home constantly. I think part of that is because I don’t explore the city enough or understand how it works. It’s been a time in my life with a lot of changes. A lot of worrying about people’s health, and what I’m doing with my life, and what I should be doing? So that’s why it was really nice to look up at the sky and just worry about who’s kite I was going to be bumping into, and how I’d try to avoid the tangle, and then how I’d detangle. Being focused on that and being surrounded by other people who were all focused on that too was really nice. For a while there I didn’t have to think about what I should be doing, or whoever is sick, or whatever is changing in my life. You can’t really look away when you’re flying a kite, you’re just present.