Producing an event at the Super Bowl, serving Charlize Theron, mingling with celebs at Soho House: all the things that my friend Urie has under his belt. I spent a day with him around San Francisco, learning about the victories and tribulations that led him from a scenic suburb of Los Angeles to New York and then to San Francisco. A go-getter with a knack for reinvention, Urie is the embodiment of California and its undying resilience.

She was once the teen physics wiz from Serbia who competed in International Physics Olympiads. Today, she’s one of the systems engineers designing the future of self-driving cars. I caught up with the effortlessly cool Tamara to talk about everything, from her seven year-long research mission to advance the field of quantum physics by controlling single atoms to her newfound life in California after eleven years of calling Boston her home.

A master of all her crafts, the impressively talented Nay met with me multiple times over the summer, providing unreserved access into her life. Whether it’s shedding her software-engineer skin to become a product designer, having to accept the finiteness of life after losing her dad and grandma, or plunging into uncertainty as she leaves San Francisco and goes to Asia with no plan of what comes after, Nay’s life experiences always have one common element—her innate drive to create beauty in any situation.

It didn’t take long for me to recognize the unsung hero in my neighbor Mia. A trained social worker with a heart that’s deeply committed to serving those in need, she is an LA girl who unwaveringly radiates positivity despite facing the darkest depths of human suffering in her work every day. I spent a few days with Mia over the summer learning the ins and outs of social work, what it’s like to have a parent who struggles with addiction, and the joys of astrology in helping navigate the emotional gymnastics of dating in San Francisco.

He is the friend who can ideate solutions to very math-heavy problems with you for hours and then masterfully navigate fast-paced human interactions at an underground party. I spent a day with Seb in The Mission, his favorite neighborhood in San Francisco, discussing sci-fi, distributed systems, and his intricate understanding of the city’s social scenes. All of which are examples of Seb’s uninhibited curiosity for life, the trait that I now greatly admire but had once been intimidated by.

Unassuming yet an impressive force of nature, my friend Victoria is a true photographer at heart: someone who observes the world around her and finds essence in the in-between moments. Just three weeks before she left San Francisco to follow her passion of becoming a full-time photographer in New York, Victoria and I met to do a double creative take: I would be one of the subjects for her departing exhibition and she would be one of the interviewees for the magazine.

Perpetually inquisitive and endearingly authentic, Neha is the friend who has been by my side for the entirety of my post-adolescent life. While she was visiting California from Boston, where she now co-leads a tech company, Neha stopped by San Francisco and shared her latest life updates: from making friends through Bumble BFF and going to Japan to developing synthetic data in the world of rapidly-evolving tech.

Too thoughtful to be the resident frat bro and yet somehow too cool to be the weird outcast, my friend Will is a charming product of seemingly irreconcilable paradoxes. We spent a day together exploring the scenic and oceanic San Francisco—a day that could have easily been an episode of The O.C.—discussing Will’s transition into late twenties and all the joys and pains that come with this phase in life.